


A Cautionary Tale

by localspacelesbian



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Explicit Language, Gen, High School, Mean girls Au, Mentions of homophobia, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-22 09:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 32,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22247152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localspacelesbian/pseuds/localspacelesbian
Summary: Andi Mack is excited to go to a real school for the first time in her life and make some friends her own age, but after meeting the Plastics, she's just hoping to survive the year.It's a cautionary tale of fear and lust and prideBased on actual events where people died(No one died)aka the Mean Girls AU no one asked for
Relationships: Buffy Driscoll & Cyrus Goodman & Andi Mack, Cyrus Goodman/T. J. Kippen, Jonah Beck/Andi Mack
Comments: 93
Kudos: 60





	1. Prologue: A Cautionary Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _This is a cautionary tale_  
>  About corruption and betrayal!  
> And getting hit by a bus! 

Buffy and Cyrus stepped up to the two microphones set up on the gym floor. They looked up at all the freshman sitting in the bleachers. “Hello! Welcome to high school. I’m your Senior Class President Buffy Driscoll.”

“And I’m your Senior Class Vice President Cyrus Goodman.”

“Dr. Metcalf asked us to give you all a little talk to welcome you to Grant High School..”

“The good news is: you survived middle school!” Cyrus did jazz hands. “So it literally can’t get worse from here!”

“But for most of you, things aren’t really going to get better until _ at least _ college.”

“Hopefully.”

“So, to prepare you for the next four years of your life, we’ve decided to tell you a little story.”

“A cautionary tale, if you will.”

“About our friend Andi.”

“And how far she was willing to go for the sake of popularity.”

“And a cute boy.”

“Yes, a very cute boy. With dimples. That’s very important,” Cyrus added, pointing his finger.

“Anyway, we all like to think that we’re nice people.”

“But sometimes, it’s just so much easier to be mean.”

“Sometimes, we forget that our actions have consequences.”

“So here’s a story about such consequences. Based on actual events.”

“Where people died.”

“No one died.”

“I died on the inside,” Buffy deadpanned, staring at the freshman in the bleachers.

“Buffy, I thought we were talking about 11th grade, not 8th.”

Buffy turned and started at him. There was silence for at least a full five seconds. “Anyway.” She turned back to the audience. “This story is about corruption and betrayal.”

“And getting hit by a bus.”

“Hopefully, this will make you think twice the next time you want to be mean to someone to get what you want”

“Our story begins in a cheap hotel room on the other side of the country…”


	2. It Roars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Did you ever get a feeling  
>  That a whole new world is waiting  
> Bringing happiness and friends  
> To the brave girl who explores  
> It's a scary kind of feeling, but it's so exhilarating_

When Andi walked into the hotel room after going to pick up take out for her and her parents, she immediately knew something was wrong. Her parents were sitting on their bed in an ominous tableau. She set the food on the desk. “What happened?”

They looked at each other and then back at her. She sat on the other bed facing them. “Do you want the bad news or the worse news first?” Bex tried to joke.

“I guess the bad news?”

Bex looked at Bowie, signalling for him to speak. “The Renaissance Boys broke up. Our tour’s ending early.”

She looked at him in shock. The Renaissance Boys had been together forever. Sure, they’d had problems in the past, but the way Bowie said it made it feel more permanent this time somehow. “What? When? Why? What happened?”

“Micah got into law school, Rafe threw out his back, and Guthrie met a girl.”

“Woah. That’s a lot. It’s like-”

“The Universe didn’t want this tour to happen,” he finished for her.

She nodded. “Yeah. That sucks. So what are we going to do now? And wait, you said there was worse news?” She looked to Bex.

Bex looked down at her lap, took a deep breath, and looked back up at Andi. “The Renaissance Boys aren’t the only ones who broke up.”

“What do you mean?” Andi looked between her parents, starting to fear the worst.

“My parents, Cece and Pops, they got a divorce.”

Andi felt like her brain was melting. She didn’t understand. Last time she saw them, they seemed fine. Granted, that had been over a year ago, but still. They had been married for what? Thirty-something years? How does that just happen? “What? When? Why? What happened?”

“I don’t know. I just found out today. Apparently, Pops moved to India? Or something? I don’t know. I’m kind of hoping I misheard her about that part. But I’m worried about mom. She seemed fine on the phone, but I don’t know if I’ll believe that until I see it. I know we haven’t seen her in a long time, and we don’t exactly get along, but I know her, and there’s no way she’s handling this as well as she’s pretending to. So, we were thinking, since we no longer have to be on tour, maybe the three of us could go stay with her for a while. Just to make sure she’s doing ok? Would you be ok with that?”

Andi nodded. “Yeah, of course. But are you sure you’re ok with that? You two hate each other.”

“We don’t  _ hate _ each other. We just…”

“Can barely spend two minutes in the same room without yelling at each other,” Andi finished for her.

“Ok maybe, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still love each other or that I can’t be worried about her. We’ll figure it out. And we don’t have to stay there that long.”

Andi nodded. “Ok. When do we leave?”

A couple days later, the grease mobile rolled into Shadyside, Midwest. Andi woke up as she felt the car start to slow down, and she looked out the window. She smiled to herself at the vaguely nostalgic sights around her. Shadyside wasn’t Home exactly, but with all the traveling she had done in her life, it was the only place that remained constant. She and her parents would come visit her grandparents about once a year, and though she hardly left their house when she was there, the view from the drive into town felt familiar. But it was more in the way that a movie you’ve seen over and over again feels familiar than in the way your hometown might feel familiar.

Eventually, they pulled into Cece’s driveway and got out of the car. Andi left her stuff behind and ran to the door. She rang the doorbell, and Cece answered immediately.

She gave Bex an annoyed look. “You’re late.”

“Good to see you, too, mom,” Bex said as she brushed passed the two of them into the house.

“It’s nice to see you again, Celia.” Cece just rolled her eyes at Bowie as he followed his wife upstairs to their bedroom.

Cece turned to Andi, finally smiling. She opened her arms for Andi to give her a hug, and when they pulled away from each other, she left her hands on Andi’s shoulders. She frowned and then started talking very quickly. “You’re taller than me now. When did that happen? Have you had supper yet? Do you need help with your bags? I bought your favorite cereal, but there’s also Muesli, if you’re finally willing to give that a chance?” She gave Andi a hopeful look at the last sentence.

Andi smiled at her. “We ate in the car, but I could eat again. And I can get my own bags, I just wanted to say hi to you first. And no, I still don’t like Muesli, sorry.”

Cece seemed just a bit disappointed, but quickly hid it behind another smile. “That’s ok. Why don’t I make you something while you get settled in? I know I’m not much of a cook, but I’ve been doing ok for myself for the past few weeks. What do you want?”

“I’ll take just about anything.” She turned to start heading back to the car to grab her stuff, but turned back to add, “except Muesli.”

Dinner was… well, awkward was probably the only word to describe it. It felt oddly formal, considering it was just spaghetti from a box with sauce from a jar. Cece asked them about what they’d been up to since the last time she had seen them, and despite the fact that it had been over a year, none of them had much to say. It all felt very polite and superficial. Nothing like dinner with her parents usually was: cheap takeout, or maybe Bowie’s cooking if they were somewhere with a kitchen, usually on beds in front of a tv, and sometimes with the other band members. But it wasn’t quite how dinner with Cece and Pops normally was either: with Pops there to bridge the divide between Bex and Cece, joking around, doing dinner time memory games. It felt like there was a bubble around them they were all trying not to pop by saying the wrong thing.

She was grateful when they were done eating, and she could go upstairs to her room, where she immediately started stress-crafting.

She had made quite a bit of progress when she heard a knock and looked up to see her mom standing in the doorway. “Hey, whatcha makin?”

“I’m not sure yet. Either a bracelet or a necklace, depending on how long it ends up being.”

Bex came over and sat on the bed, and Andi held it up to show her. Bex took it out of her hands. “You know, at this length, I think it might make a good choker.” She held it up and wrapped it around her neck to prove her point. “Do people still wear chokers?”

She handed it back to Andi, who shrugged in response to her question. “I don’t know. It’s not like I spend any more time around teenagers than you do.” A weird look came across Bex’s face, but it was gone before Andi could figure out what it was. She held up the choker again. “Do you want it?”

Bex thought for a second. “I think it would look better on you.”

Andi held it up and wrapped it around her neck. Bex had been right that it was the perfect length. “What do you think?”

Bex smiled. “I think it looks great.”

Andi turned to look at her reflection in the mirror on the wall across from her bed. “Me too.” She set it in her lap, so she could start putting a clasp on it.

Bex watched her for a second before speaking again. “Are you ok?” Andi gave her a confused look. “You know, with all of this?” She gestured vaguely around her.

Andi sighed and looked back up at her. “Do you know how long we’re going to stay here?”

Bex sighed. “I don’t. I’m sorry.”

Andi shook her head. “It’s fine. Just. If we’re gonna be here for a while, could you and Cece at least  _ try _ to get along?”

Bex put her hand over Andi’s. “I can’t speak for her, but I’ll try, ok? For you.”

“Thank you.”

Bex kissed the top of Andi’s head. “You should try to get some sleep, ok?” Andi nodded. “I love you.”

“I love you too, mom. Good night.”

A couple hours later, Andi was having trouble sleeping, and she was starting to get hungry, so she decided to sneak down to the kitchen to look for some toaster tarts.

As she was heading back upstairs with the box, she heard a voice from the living room. “You aren’t taking food upstairs, are you?”

“No.” She walked over to the living room with the box behind her back. The lamp next to the couch turned on, and she saw Cece laying on the couch. “Cece? What are you doing down here?” She looked around. “Are you sleeping down here?”

Cece sat up and sighed. “Alright, you caught me.”

Andi walked over and sat next to her, setting the toaster tart box on the coffee table. “Are you ok?”

Cece tried to wave her concerns away. “I’m fine. It’s just… my bed is too big.”

Andi frowned. “Have you considered getting a new one?”

Cece shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t move or change anything, but I can’t sleep in that bed either.”

“Cece, what happened between you and Pops?”

“He wasn’t happy here.”

“With you?”

“No, well maybe. I don’t know. He’s always wanted to travel. And I thought I did too, at least in theory, but every time we tried to make plans, I’d come up with some excuse why it was a bad idea. And I think, seeing all those pictures of the three of you traveling around, going on adventures, well, he never said it, but I think he was a bit jealous. And then a couple months ago, we were at some dinner party, and he got to talking to this life coach, and the next thing I know, he’s packing up and heading off to India. And what was I supposed to do? Stop him from following his dream? I didn’t want him to stay with me if he wasn’t going to be happy. I just wish him leaving didn’t make  _ me _ so  _ un _ happy.” She smiled sadly at Andi, who put her hand of Cece’s.

“You know, if you want me to fight that life coach for you…” she joked.

Cece laughed and shook her head. “It’s not really his fault. Besides, I couldn’t even tell you his name. I think it was Todd something? He looked like a Todd.” She shook her head. “But I don’t want you to worry about me. I’m going to be just fine.”

“Cece, I’m always going to worry about you.” She stood up, but didn’t let go of Cece’s hand. “Come on.”

Cece stood up, but gave her a confused look. “Where are we going?”

“Tonight, you’re going to sleep in my bed with me. And tomorrow, we’re going to go out and get you a new bed, and then we’re going to go through and Marie Condo this house.”

“Ok, you lost me. What is ‘Marie Condo?’”

“She’s this woman who goes to people’s houses and helps them organize everything. She’s got a Netflix show. I think you would like it. Basically, her whole thing is getting rid of anything that doesn’t ‘spark joy.’ So that’s what we’re going to do.”

Cece nodded with a small smile. “Ok. Yeah. That sounds like fun. I do like cleaning.”

Andi smiled. “Exactly.” They started walking out of the living room. “And I think it might help you get some closure. Ooh… how do you feel about burning Pops’s things?” Cece just gave her a Look. “Right. So that’s a no to that idea. Fair enough… Oh! Do you know if there’s a rage room around here somewhere?”

“I don’t even know what that is.”

“Hmm… I’ll look into that. But for now: sleep.” She linked her arm in Cece’s and they went upstairs to bed.

The four of them spent the next week cleaning and reorganizing the whole house. Andi ended up getting a lot of new crafting supplies out of it, but she didn’t really have anywhere to put them. For now, they were just scattered around her bedroom.

One day, her parents came into her room, with matching expressions on their faces that made Andi slightly wary. “What’s going on?”

They sat down on the foot of her bed facing her and shared a look before Bex started. “So, you know how you asked me how long we’re staying?”

“Is this the part where you tell me we’re leaving?” She was surprised to hear the disappointment in her own voice. She and Cece had started to bond over the past week. Mostly through organization, but especially when she managed to convince her to go to the Rage Cage. She already couldn’t wait to go back.

“Actually, we were thinking we might be here for a while longer.”

“Like how much longer?”

Bowie answered, “Like, we’ve started looking for jobs in town, longer.”

“Oh.” That, she was not expecting.

“It’s just, Cece needs us, even though she won’t admit it. And this time, I think we’re both ready to actually make our relationship work. I know it’s only been a week, but I don’t want to give up on the little progress we’ve made already. And… I was thinking about what you said the other day.”

Andi gave her a confused look. “What’d I say?”

“That you don’t spend any more time around teenagers than I do. I think… Maybe it’s about time you made some friends your own age.”

“Oh.” Andi had no idea what to make of that. “Wait. Does this mean you’re going to send me to a real school?” They both nodded. “Woah.”

Bex looked to Bowie, and he took over. “Look, we know that this would be a big adjustment, and we get if you don’t want to, but please just think about it. You could just go for one semester. See how it goes. And then we’ll decide where to go from there.”

Andi nodded. She was starting to feel… excited? Maybe? She started to smile. “Yeah, I’ll do it.”

Her parents both smiled at her. “Really?” Bex asked.

“Yeah, maybe it won’t be so bad.” Maybe it would even be good? Maybe she’d even make friends? The three of them hugged, which was slightly awkward given their position on the bed, but none of them cared. “So, when do I start?”

Andi walked through the doors of Grant High School and was immediately overwhelmed. It’s not like she wasn’t used to being surrounded by people, but she had rarely seen so many  _ teenagers _ in one place. And it smelled almost as bad as the tour bus. Bex led her to the office, where the principal, Dr. Metcalf, introduced himself. Bex hugged her goodbye and left to go to her new job at the Fringe. Metcalf handed Andi her schedule and led her to her homeroom class. He walked her to the front of the room.

“Good morning class.” The class went silent. “We have a new student.” He gestured for her to introduce herself.

She gave a little wave and a nervous smile. “Hi, I’m Andi.” She could feel twenty pairs of eyes judging her.

A woman, presumably the teacher, came up to her and held out her hand. “Hi, Andi. I’m Ms. Frankel. I’m your homeroom teacher. Go ahead and take a seat, and don’t be afraid to ask if you need anything.”

Andi nodded. “Thank you.” She went and sat in the only open seat, which was in the front row. Metcalf left, and Ms. Frankel turned to her again. “So, Andi, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?”

Andi shrugged. “I’m not really from anywhere. I guess, here, originally, but my dad is, or was, in a band, so I kind of grew up on the road. My mom home schooled me.”

“Oh.” Ms. Frankel seemed surprised by her answer. “Well, that’s interesting. I’m sure everyone here will do their best to make you feel welcome here.” She looked around at her new classmates, who didn’t seem to agree with that sentiment.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Every class started with her introducing herself. Her classmates didn’t really say anything to her; they just judged her in silence. And there were weird things, too. Like, she had to ask to go to the bathroom? Her teachers all seemed aggressive, untrusting, and rude. Her ‘health’ class seemed to be mostly just an angry man (Coach Bag) yelling about how if they had sex, they would “get pregnant and die.” He also didn’t know how to spell anything, which made it pretty hard to take him seriously. It briefly crossed her mind that if this was the school her mom had gone to and the sex education she had gotten, Andi could see why, well, why she existed. At lunch, she walked into the cafeteria and was even more overwhelmed than when she had first arrived. It was so loud, and everyone seemed to already have their friend groups. There didn’t seem to be any empty seats anywhere, and no one wanted anything to do with her. So, she did what any respectable person would do in such a situation: she ate her lunch alone in the bathroom.

When she got home, her parents were still at work, so she went up to her room. Cece knocked on her door a little while later. Andi got up and opened it.

“So, how was your first day of school.”

“It was fine.”

“Were people nice?”

“Not really.”

“Did you make any friends?”

“No.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. Well, there’s always tomorrow.” Andi nodded, though she wasn’t sure if she believed her. “Come on. I want to show you something.” Andi was confused, but she followed Cece downstairs and out to the backyard, where there was a sad-looking shed standing there.

It wasn’t like Andi had never noticed the shed before, but she had never really paid much attention to it. “What am I looking at?”

Cece pointed to the shed. “This is the last place we have to clean out Ham’s old stuff.”

Andi nodded. “Ok…”

“And… I was thinking, since you’re going to be sticking around for a while, and I don’t really have any use for it, maybe you could use it?”

Andi gave her a confused look. “For what?”

“For your art supplies, or crafting, or whatever. It can be whatever you want. It needs a lot of work, but I know your room is starting to get cluttered with all your new crafting stuff, and I thought it would be nice for you to have your own space that’s separate from us adults, and you can do whatever you want with it.”

Andi felt herself start to tear up as she looked at the shed in a whole new light, starting to imagine all the things she could do with it. She had never really had a permanent, physical space like this before, one that was entirely her own. It was exactly the kind of thing she needed after today. She pulled Cece into a hug. “Thank you.”

“Yeah well, don’t thank me yet. We still gotta clean it out first.” Andi nodded, and they got to work right away.


	3. Where Do You Belong?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _You'll be judged on site, voted in or out_  
>  'Cause that's what high school's all about

Andi’s second day at Grant was pretty similar to the first. Her classes passed in a blur; she ate lunch in the bathroom; and no one talked to her. The only thing that got her through the day was thinking about Andi Shack, which was what she had started calling the shed Cece had given her in her head. She found herself doodling design plans in the margins of her notes.

When she got home from school, she immediately got to working on Andi Shack to take her mind off of school. When Bex got off work, she took Andi shopping for paint and other supplies necessary to fix up the small building.

The third day was when things started to get interesting. She went into the bathroom to eat her lunch again, and there were two people already in there. “Excuse me.” She tried walking passed them to the stall, but they blocked her way. She looked at them in confusion and finally noticed that she was pretty sure they were both in her homeroom class, and one of them was almost definitely a guy. And while she personally didn’t really care too much about that kind of thing, she was pretty sure that was against the rules.

“You’re the new kid, right?” the girl asked, though it was clear she already knew the answer. Andi nodded. “I’m Buffy.” She held out her hand, and Andi shook it, though she was no less confused by the situation. “And this is Cyrus.” He smiled and gave her a small wave. “He’s almost too gay to function.” Andi raised her eyebrow. She was pretty sure Buffy hadn’t meant that in a negative way, and Cyrus didn’t seem bothered by it, but she wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it.

“We’ve decided to be your unofficial guides to Grant.” At her confused expression, Cyrus continued. “We’re here to help. You know, show you around the school and stuff.” It seemed a bit late for a tour, but they were the first people at this school to show her any kind of friendliness, so she’d take it.

“Ok. Uh. Thanks, I guess.”

They led her out of the bathroom. “Ok, first things first: the cafeteria.” Cyrus gestured around the room as they walked in. “I know it seems a bit… terrifying at first, but we can help break it down for you.” They started pointing out all the different tables, each one of which held a different clique. She was intrigued by the art club, but her new friends quickly steered her away, saying that they were all pretentious snobs and not worth her time, which was a bit disappointing, but who was she to argue with the only people in this school who had been nice to her so far?

She pointed at a table with only three people at it in the middle of the room. There was something about them that just gave off a very powerful vibe. “Who are they?”

Buffy answered, “We call them the Plastics.”

“Aka, the Kippens: TJ, Marty, and Amber.”

“They’re triplets. Their parents are like super rich and they basically run the whole school. Stay away from them. TJ and Marty are pretty much your typical asshole jocks, but Amber’s the worst. She’s a manipulative, life-ruining snorpion.” Buffy said the last part very angrily.

“Snorpion?” Andi asked.

“It’s a cross between a snake and a scorpion. It’s a long story. Buffy hates her because-”

“Cyrus! She does not need to hear the story.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Basically, if you want to survive this school, it’s best if the Kippens don’t know you exist.” Andi nodded. She looked back at the table, now feeling more than a little intimidated by the three teens.

Finally, they stopped, and Cyrus pointed at an empty table with two trays sitting on it. “And this is the cool kids table.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “By which, he means, it’s our table. And trust me, we are far from cool, but we mostly manage to stay out of all the clique drama, so we have that going for us. And it’s definitely better than eating in the bathroom.” Andi couldn’t argue with that. She set her lunchbox down on the table. “Oh, and only losers bring their lunch.” She pointed at the line. “Go buy your food; we’ll be right over here.”


	4. Meet the Plastics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _You're new and you don't know things  
>  You need good friends who can tell you what to think  
> See you here same time tomorrow  
> On Wednesdays we wear pink_

Once Andi had her tray of food that barely looked edible, she started walking back toward Cyrus and Buffy. Suddenly, there was a guy blocking her path. “Hey, you wanna see a trick? I can guess any girl’s bra size. All you gotta do is jump once.” Andi raised her eyebrow and was about to tell him to fuck off when someone else interrupted.

“Reed! Leave her alone.” Andi looked over to see who had come to her rescue and was shocked to see that it was the Amber Kippen. Her brothers were also both glaring at this Reed guy. The effect was pretty intimidating. “You are a pathetic loser, and no one cares what you have to say. So stop being pervy and go away.”

Reed rolled his eyes and walked away, muttering the word, “bitch.”

Andi turned to Amber. “Uh… thanks, I guess.”

Amber cocked her head to the side. “Why don’t I know you?”

“Oh. I’m new. My name is Andi.” She could feel all three of them analyzing her. It was very uncomfortable.

“I’m Amber. And this,” she gestured to the boy to her right, “is TJ. And this,” she gestured to the other boy, “is Marty.”

Andi nodded. “Oh. Uh, nice to meet you.”

“You’re really pretty.”

Andi blushed because come on, even if Amber was supposedly a bitch, she was still a pretty girl complimenting her. “Oh. Uh. Thanks.”

“So you agree?”  _ Wait. What? _

“What?”

“You think you’re pretty.”

“Oh. Uh-”

“Can you give us some privacy for a second?”

“Uh. I guess.” She took a step back and watched as Amber whispered to each of her brothers in turn before looking back at Andi.

“Look, we don’t really do this, but we’re going to invite you to have lunch with us.”

“Oh. That’s ok-”

“Sit.” She said it with a sweet smile, but suddenly Andi felt like a dog, obeying without hesitation, sitting at the table across from Amber. She glanced over at Buffy and Cyrus, who were giving her confused looks. “So, where are you from?”

“Oh. Uh. I’m not really from anywhere. My parents and I have kind of just been traveling around the world for basically my whole life. My dad’s in a band.”

“That’s so fetch,” TJ said.

Amber looked at him. “What the hell is ‘fetch?’”

“It’s like slang. From England or something.” TJ shrugged and then looked back at Andi. “What band is your dad in?”

“The Renaissance Boys. Well, technically they broke up, which is kinda why we’re back in Shadyside.” She shrugged.

Marty said, “Wow, I’ve actually heard of them.”

TJ rolled his eyes at Marty. “So which one of them is your dad?”

“The guitarist. Bowie.”

TJ’s eyes widened. “Your dad is Bowie Quinn?”

Andi nodded. “Well, technically it’s Bowie Mack now. He took my mom’s last name when they got married.”

“How modern,” Amber said. “And you can go ahead and ignore TJ. He’s really into music, and he’s got a bit of a man crush on like every guy who can play an instrument moderately well..” Andi had to suppress a laugh at that.

TJ rolled his eyes, but his face went slightly pink. “Shut up. I’m not gay.”

Amber rolled her eyes in a way that was eerily similar to her brother. “Never said you were, baby bro.” TJ looked like he was about to say something, but Amber continued, looking at Andi, before he had a chance. “So, we’re going shopping tomorrow. You wanna come?” she asked in a tone that implied that she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I can buy you some new shoes.”

Andi barely resisted the urge to look down at the shoes she was wearing and ask what was wrong with them. “Uh… Sure.”

Amber gave her a smile that was so fake that Andi finally understood where the nickname ‘Plastic’ came from. “Perfect. And you can have lunch with us for the rest of the week.” Once again, her tone left no room for argument. The bell rang and the three of them stood up in sync. Amber waved to her as they walked away. “See you tomorrow!”

Andi just sat there for a second in shock until Buffy and Cyrus came up to her. She stood up and walked with them to put their trays away. “What happened?” Buffy asked.

“Amber defended me from some creepy guy? And then asked me to have lunch with them? And now they’re taking me shopping tomorrow? And now I feel bad cause I already said I would eat lunch with you guys. I’m sorry.”

Buffy shook her head and a mischievous smile appeared on her face. “No wait. This is perfect. You should do it, and then afterward, you can tell us about all the awful stuff they say.”

“What? Like spy on them?” Buffy nodded excitedly. Cyrus seemed a bit apprehensive but didn’t say anything. She looked between them and thought about it. She nodded slowly. “Yeah, ok. I’ll do it.”


	5. Stupid With Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _School was rough but now it's not  
>  'Cause now there's him_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: mentions of toxic relationships (Gabriel and Miranda)

Andi’s last class of the day was Art History, which wasn’t quite as fun as a regular art class, but it was as close as she could get, having registered late. Ms. Frankel was the teacher, and she was the only teacher Andi had met so far who didn’t seem to have some kind of personal vendetta against her. The best part of the class, though, was that she sat right behind the cutest boy she had ever seen: Jonah Beck. He had adorable dimples, beautiful green eyes, and soft-looking hair that she just wanted to reach out and touch. But that would be weird, right? Yeah, that would definitely be weird. But no one could stop her from thinking about it.

After she answered a few questions correctly in class, and he turned around to look at her. “Are you trying to make the rest of us feel dumb?” he joked.

“I’m not trying to; it’s just happening.” Her eyes widened.  _ Wait. Shit _ . That came out way ruder than she meant it to.

But he just laughed and turned back around. And damn, as soon as she heard that laugh, she was done for. It was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard. She tried to pay attention to the teacher for the rest of class, but it was basically impossible.

Andi had never been great with romance. None of her crushes had ever worked out. Not that she’d had a lot. But there were a couple particularly painful memories that stuck out to her. She’d had her first real crush when she was six. There was this girl who had traveled with them for a while. Her name was Sam, and her dad was a musician, and the two of them had toured with the Renaissance Boys for a while. As the only two kids there, they had gotten pretty close. Andi made her a bracelet, but she threw it on the ground and ran away. A few days later, she and her dad were gone without so much as a goodbye, and Andi never saw her again. She was heartbroken. Her parents reassured her that it’d get better, and while it didn’t feel like it would at the time, she did get over it eventually. At least, mostly. Bex told her that you never really get over your first crush. There were a few others, of course, but she never really stuck around anywhere for long enough to make friends, let alone date anyone or even have many real crushes.

When she was 11, she and her mom stayed in Denver for a few months because her parents had had a fight and were on a “break,” and Bex had started seeing this guy, Gabriel. It was a lot for Andi to deal with, so she ended up spending most of her time at the library, where she met a boy named Ethan. He was home schooled too, and they did their homework together almost every day. It was pretty much the only good part of that whole year. It wasn’t long before she started to develop feelings for him. She thought that maybe he felt the same way, but when she finally got the courage to ask him out, he just stopped showing up to the library. And not too long after that, Andi did too.

Andi couldn’t help but blame her parents just a little bit for her problems with relationships. And not just because of all the moving around. She was pretty sure it was genetic or something (and the recent separation of her grandparents only supported that theory). Sure, Bex and Bowie were doing great now, but it had been a long and difficult road, and Andi had been witness to more of it than was probably healthy.

Like, their “break,” aka the Year of the Snake, aka the Gabriel Incident, aka the Miranda Incident, aka the Ethan Incident; Andi had a lot of names for that year, none of them pleasant. Let’s just say, none of the Macks had had much luck with relationships that year.

Fortunately, Bex and Bowie came to their senses eventually. And when they did, the three of them packed up their stuff in record time and drove away in the grease mobile without looking back. They never actually told Andi what had happened that night to make them both finally decide to leave. She was almost scared to ask. Instead, she just tried to put the whole experience behind her, glad that it was over.

But maybe the whole thing had warped Andi’s ideas of love a bit. It didn’t help that she had assumed that her parents would get back together immediately afterward. But of course, things are never that simple. It wasn’t until a year later that they got engaged. It took three proposals. And then there was another year of on-again-off-again before they actually got married. Bex had brought them back to Shadyside, claiming that she wanted to celebrate the Chinese New Year with her parents, even though they hardly ever did that. And then, basically as soon as Aunt Mei was out the door, she had gotten them all out into the middle of nowhere for a surprise wedding. It had been probably the best day of Andi’s life.

So, sure, Bex and Bowie had worked everything out in the end. But even the little bit of hope her parents’ wedding had given her couldn’t undo the years of repressing anything close to romantic feelings to avoid repeating their mistakes. She told herself that she just didn’t think romance was worth it. It was messy and complicated, and she didn’t understand it. She didn’t want to understand it. So she focused on more important things. Like art.

She had been crafting as long as she could remember. The band always knew to make sure that, wherever they went, she had a place to plug in her glue gun. And even if there wasn’t an outlet nearby, she’d find a way to make something without it. She didn’t have a ton of space in the car for art supplies, but she made do with what she had. She picked up various things along their travels, and turned them into accessories or ‘works of art,’ as her mom called them. She wasn’t so sure that they actually qualified as ‘art,’ but it was fun. Relaxing. Cathartic even. Creating things out of what other people saw as trash.

So she put all of her time and energy into her crafts. Because something she created couldn’t betray her. And she didn’t have time for relationships. So she didn’t give much thought to romance. It just wasn’t important to her. Until now. Until him.

When Jonah Beck asked to borrow her eraser, she felt her heart skip a beat, and she could barely make words form, so she just handed it to him without saying anything. What was wrong with her? Her previous crushes had never happened this quickly or felt this intense. Maybe it was the knowledge that she’d actually be sticking around for a while this that gave her just the slightest bit of hope. Maybe it was the years of repressing those feelings that made them come back all at once and hit her like a bus.

When she got home, she found herself instinctively starting to make a bracelet, and despite the fact that she never actively made the decision, she knew it was for Jonah Beck. As soon as she realized that, she threw it across the room and sighed. She looked up and saw her memory box sitting on her dresser. Staring at her. She got up and opened it. It had been a while since she’d looked through it. It was mostly tickets and pictures from places she’d been to with her parents. There were a few of the band and other people they’d performed with. There were some fortune cookie fortunes and bottle caps. The bracelet she’d made for Sam. A bookmark from that library in Denver that she and Ethan had drawn on.

She closed the box and tried physically to shake the memories away. Then, she went outside to work in Andi Shack to clear her head. She didn’t want to think about romance right now. She was just starting to make friends, and that was stressful enough as it was. She didn’t need to add a relationship on top of that. Still, she couldn’t quite squash that little bit of hope that was starting to form in her heart as she found her mind wandering to images of Jonah Beck.


	6. Apex Predator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _So I'm kinda friends  
>  But you're kind of prey  
> Jesus, what a day  
> With the apex predator_

After the final bell rang the next day, Andi was grabbing her stuff from her locker when Marty and TJ suddenly appeared on either side of her. She jumped. TJ smirked at her. “You ok there?”

“I’m fine. Just easily startled.” She put her bag over her shoulder.

Marty nodded. “Noted.”

“So this is the part where we go to the mall then?” Andi asked. They both nodded, and the three of them started walking. “So, this is gonna be fun, right?”

TJ said sarcastically, “Oh yeah, I love walking around a crowded mall for hours, carrying my sister’s bags for her.”

“Why do you go with her, then?”

TJ shrugged. “Don’t have anything better to do. Basketball season doesn’t start until November.”

Andi nodded. “Fair enough I guess.”

They stepped outside just as Amber pulled up in her silver convertible. “Get in losers. We’re going shopping.”

TJ and Marty both rolled their eyes and went around to the other side of the car, opening the doors simultaneously and getting in, Marty in the passenger seat and TJ right behind him. Andi followed suit, getting in the car in the seat behind Amber.

“Seat belts,” TJ reminded them all as Amber pulled away from the school.

For most of Andi’s life, she had shopped almost exclusively at thrift stores. It wasn’t like she had  _ never _ been to a mall before, but she hadn’t exactly spent a lot of time in them, and never had she seen them from the perspective of The Average Teenage Girl. It was like a whole other world.

True to what TJ had said, the shopping trip was mostly Amber and Andi trying on things that Amber picked out while he and Marty carried their bags. Amber did also make them try on a few things, and they went along with it, but mostly they just sat there and watched, complimenting them in a way that felt almost automatic. Amber seemed very… excited? to have Andi there trying on stuff with her. She kept pushing her to try on more things and offering to buy them for her, despite Andi’s protests. When they got to the shoe store, the guys came to life a bit, going off on their own to look for new basketball and running shoes while Amber helped Andi pick out some heels that she could barely walk in.

After they were done shopping, they walked around for a bit and stopped at a pretzel stand. TJ and Marty each got their own pretzel, but Amber insisted on sharing one with Andi because “honestly, even half a pretzel is too much for me. I need to lose three pounds.”

Andi just rolled her eyes and tried to convince her that she most certainly did not need to lose any weight, but went along with it anyway because she didn’t want to make Amber buy her any more than she already had.

They were sitting at a table eating when suddenly TJ looked over Amber and Andi’s shoulders with a look on his face that Andi couldn’t quite interpret. She and Amber both turned and saw Reed, the guy who had harassed Andi the day before, and some girl Andi maybe recognized from around school sitting at another table sharing a pretzel. Amber narrowed her eyes at them and then turned back to the others with an angry look on her face. Andi was very confused.

TJ clearly knew what the look in Amber’s eyes meant. Amber pulled out her phone and started typing. “Amber, what are you doing?”

She ignored him. She dialed some number on her phone and put it to her ear. A few seconds later, someone answered, and Amber spoke with a fake customer service voice. “Hi, is this Kira Summers?” There was a short pause. “Well, could you tell her to give me a call back when she gets home. This is Susan, from Planned Parenthood. I have her test results back.” She hung up her phone and set it down with a smug look on her face.

TJ and Marty seemed surprised, but not nearly as surprised as Andi felt. “Damn. What’d she do to deserve that?”

Amber just shrugged. “No one messes with my baby brother.”

TJ rolled his eyes. “First of all, we’re literally the same age. Second of all,” he turned to Andi. “It’s a long story.”

Andi nodded. “Fair enough.”

Amber suddenly stood up. “I’ll be right back.” They all nodded, though Andi watched her walk away with a confused look on her face.

Marty turned to Andi. “So how do you like Grant so far?”

Andi shrugged. “It’s alright. I’m still not quite used to it.”

They both nodded. “So… are there any guys you like yet?” Marty asked her. She raised her eyebrow. “Or girls, we don’t judge.” Somehow, Andi had a hard time believing that.

She shrugged. “Well, there’s this guy in my Art History class who’s pretty cute.”

Marty asked, “Who is he?”

She thought for a second. “First, tell me the story about that Kira girl.”

Marty looked at TJ who looked around the food court dramatically before leaning forward. He paused for a second. “No.” He smirked and leaned back, crossing his arms.

She rolled her eyes and leaned back, sighing. She supposed it probably wasn’t really any of her business, and she had only known them for like two days. “Fine.” She figured her ‘crush’ or whatever it was wasn’t really that big of a deal anyway. “His name is Jonah Beck.”

Marty and TJ widened their eyes and shared a look that told Andi that it actually was a big deal. “Oh no,” Marty said.

“Bad idea,” TJ added.

“What? Why? Is he like a douchebag or something?” He had seemed nice enough, but then again, she had barely spoken to him.

“No. Well, kinda, but that’s not why you can’t date him,” TJ said.

“He’s Amber’s ex.”

“So, completely off-limits.”

“You can’t date your friend’s ex. It’s like the rules of feminism.”

Andi raised her eyebrow at Marty. “Are you really trying to mansplain feminism to me?”

“Ok, so maybe not the rules of feminism, but like you can’t date your friend’s ex. It’s just like, I don’t know, Girl Code or something.”

“You two aren’t girls.”

TJ shook his head and waved his hand. “Whatever. The point is: Amber would be pissed off, and you really don’t want to be on Amber’s bad side.” He looked pointedly at where Kira was now talking on her phone looking very distressed, Reed nowhere in sight.

Andi nodded. “Got it.” She figured that if Amber was the kind of girl Jonah normally liked, she probably didn’t have much of a chance anyway.

“But don’t worry. We won’t tell her,” Marty added with a smile that didn’t exactly reassure her.

She smiled at him. “Thanks.” She ate the last bite of her pretzel, suddenly feeling much less sure about whether or not this whole ‘being friends with the Kippens’ thing was a good idea.

Amber’s car rolled up to the nicest house Andi had ever seen. She tried her best to hide her look of awe as she looked out the window, but from the small snort she heard from TJ next to her, she probably wasn’t doing a very good job. Amber parked in the garage, and the four of them got out of the car. TJ, Marty, and Andi grabbed all the shopping bags from the trunk, and Amber led them upstairs to her bedroom. Andi did her best not to stare too much on the way. When they got to Amber’s room, they set down the bags, and Andi looked around.

“Wow, your room is really nice.”

“Thanks,” Amber smiled at her.

“It used to be our parents’ room, but she made them switch with her,” TJ added. Andi raised her eyebrow at that.

Amber walked over to the huge mirror on the wall, and her brothers followed her. “Ugh, I really need to lose weight.”

“Shut up, no you don’t.” TJ bumped her with his shoulder and then looked at himself in the mirror. “Ugh, I need to get back into shape before basketball season starts.” If this was TJ  _ out _ of shape, Andi was almost scared to see what he looked like when he was  _ in _ shape.

Marty snorted as he walked away to hop onto the bed. “You could always go running with me.”

TJ turned and looked at him. “No offense Marty, but I would literally rather die than wake up at five in the morning to run with you.”

Marty looked him right in the eye. “Then perish.”

TJ rolled his eyes, but before he could say anything, there was a knock on the door, which then immediately opened. A woman, whom Andi assumed must be their mom, walked in. “Hi, kids. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Maybe there was a reason for that,” Amber muttered, otherwise ignoring her mom.

She saw Andi and walked up to her. “Ooh, you brought a friend over.” She held out her hand for Andi to shake. “I’m Emily. Do you need anything? Snacks? Something to drink?”

Andi smiled. “I’m Andi, and I’m good, but thank you.”

“Ok, well if you need anything, just let me know. I’m not like a regular mom; I’m a cool mom.”

“Mom.”

“Ok, ok. I’ll get out of your hair. I just wanted to show you something I found when I was cleaning your closet.”

Amber finally walked over. “Why were you in my closet?”

“I told you. I was cleaning. Anyway, I found this.” She held up a pink book. “It’s your Burn Book! Remember this?” She turned to explain to Andi, “See, in middle school-”

“Mom!”

Emily held up her hands. “Ok, ok, I’m leaving.” She held out the book and Marty took it. As she left, she added. “Just let me know if you need anything.”

Amber closed the door behind her mom and then turned toward where Marty was now looking at the book. The three of them joined Marty on the bed to look over his shoulder at the book. “What is it?” Andi asked.

“We cut out pictures from the yearbook, and then we added comments. Look.” Marty showed it to her. He started flipping through it and reading some of them out loud. He, Amber, and TJ laughed at some of them and commented on whether or not they were still true. At one page, he got kinda quiet, so TJ read it out.

“Buffy Driscoll: psycho stalker freak.” Andi looked over in surprise at the picture of Buffy and Cyrus glued onto the page.

“What’s his name again?” Marty asked, pointing at Cyrus.

“That’s Cyrus,” TJ answered, maybe a bit too quickly. “They’re like attached at the hip now.”

“Yeah, he’s almost too gay to function,” Andi added. TJ flinched slightly. It was so small she probably wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t been sitting so close to him.  _ Shit _ . Should she not have said that? Maybe it was only ok when Buffy said it.

But Amber laughed. “That’s funny. You should add that.”

Andi could only watch in horror as Marty found a pen and wrote it on the page. “What’s the deal with Buffy anyway?” Andi asked, trying to sound casual.

“It’s a long story,” Amber said, but in a voice that indicated that it was a story she was happy to tell. Andi indicated for her to go on. “Ok, so you are not going to believe this, but we actually used to be friends.” Andi looked at her in shock. “Yeah, I know right? But that was before I knew what a freak she was. So anyway, all through elementary school and up through seventh grade, it was me, her, and this other girl, Iris. We were like best friends. And then, in the summer before eighth grade, Iris moved away, and it was like all downhill from there. Buffy started acting really weird because she like high key had a thing for Iris, but whatever. And then she joined the boys’ basketball team, and I was like, ‘what the fuck’ because you can’t have a girl on the boys’ basketball team, right? And I think she did it just cause she knew it would piss off TJ cause like, he was the captain, right? So things were always weird between them when she came over to hang out with me, but she kept coming over anyway, and I figured out that it was because she started to become like obsessed with Marty.” Andi glanced at Marty, and saw that he was avoiding eye contact, and his face was slightly pink. Amber continued, shrugging, “So like, I guess she moved on from Iris pretty quickly. Anyway, she started acting really weird, like bordering on stalking, and eventually she asked him out, and he said no because obviously. And she like freaked out. Like, she flushed his shoes down the toilet and then got in a fight at a basketball game and got kicked off the team.” She shrugged again. “And then I guess her parents pulled her out of school. And she came back freshman year, and she was all weird and cold. Like the only person she talks to is that Cyrus kid, and the only thing she cares about is basketball.”

“Oh.” Andi didn’t really know how to respond to that.

Amber stood up. “Yeah, so like, it’s probably best to stay away from her.” She reached out her hand to Marty. “Come on, Marty. I wanna do your eyebrows.”

Marty accepted her help up, and started following her to the bathroom. “Can I still have two?”

TJ stood up and started to follow them, but the door closed right in his face. His shoulders fell slightly. “Right. I guess we’ll just wait out here then.” He turned back toward Andi, who had also stood up at this point.

“Are you ok?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine. It’s not like I wanted to watch Amber pluck Marty’s eyebrows anyway.” They heard laughter coming from the bathroom, and he looked over his shoulder for a second before looking back. He started to walk back toward Andi. “It’s just that they’ve been doing a lot of stuff just the two of them lately, and it’s kinda weird, but like whatever.”

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

Andi nodded. She didn’t know what else to say. Her phone vibrated, and she checked it, feeling relieved when she read the notification. “My dad’s here to pick me up, so I should probably go.” He nodded, but he looked a bit disappointed, which was kind of surprising. She looked around and saw all the shopping bags. “Hey, do you think you could help me carry all the stuff Amber bought me out to the car?”

He shrugged and walked over to the bags. The two of them sorted out what was hers, and started carrying it downstairs. She held the door open for him and let him lead the way.

When they got outside, they saw her dad leaning against the grease-mobile, which was parked in front of the house, looking very out of place in such a nice neighborhood. He looked up and smiled. “Oh good, I was worried I wasn’t in the right place.” He opened the back door for them to put the shopping bags in car. He raised his eyebrows. “I wasn’t expecting you to buy so much stuff.” Andi just shrugged.

“Why does your car smell like french fries?” TJ asked as he stepped back from it.

“It runs on leftover vegetable oil from restaurants,” Andi answered.

“Oh. That’s… cool.”

Bowie held out his hand. “I’m Bowie, by the way, Andi’s dad.”

TJ’s eyes widened as he realized who he was talking to. “I’m TJ,” he said as he shook Bowie’s hand. “You’re Bowie Qu-ack.” Andi snorted, and TJ winced. “Sorry, I started to say Quinn, but then I remembered that Andi said it was Mack.”

“It’s fine.” Bowie smiled. “You know who I am?”

TJ nodded. “You’re in the Renaissance Boys. Sorry, is that weird?”

Bowie nodded. “Nah, you’re good. But technically, the Renaissance Boys split up. Now I’m just regular old Bowie Mack.”

TJ nodded again. “Right. Andi mentioned that. What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Bowie shrugged. “Eh, it was a bunch of different things. But I like to think it was the Universe’s way of telling us to move back here to Shadyside.”

“Oh.”

“We should probably get going.” Bowie turned to Andi. “Your mom ordered pizza.”

Andi grinned at the mention of pizza and then turned to TJ when he spoke. “I should probably get back inside anyway. Make sure Amber hasn’t ripped off one of Marty’s eyebrows again.. I’ll see you tomorrow at school?”

Andi nodded and waved to him before getting in the car. She watched him walk inside as they started to pull away from the house.

“So, is that the guy you like?”

Andi laughed. “TJ? No way.” She wasn’t really sure why that idea was so ridiculous to her, but it was.

Bowie pouted. “Well, how should I know? You never talk to us anymore.”

“‘Never’ is kind of a strong claim considering it’s been less than a week since school started.”

“Well, who is it then?”

“Can we talk about something else?”

“Fine. Let’s talk about how much money you spent at the mall today.”

“I didn’t spend a single cent.”

“I think that’s worse. You do get how that’s worse, right? You let them buy you all that stuff?”

“Amber didn’t exactly leave me much of a choice. She insisted that my wardrobe needed an upgrade. Besides, after seeing their house, it’s kind of hard to feel too bad about it.”

“And what’s wrong with how you dress now?”

Andi shrugged. “You’re the one who wanted me to go to a real school to find out what normal teenagers are like, and apparently, normal teenage girls don’t wear combat boots covered in washi tape or homemade chokers.”

“So what do ‘normal teenage girls’ wear then?”

“Apparently, high heels and a lot of pink. I think it’s like against ‘girl code’ or something to be comfortable.”

Bowie snorted but then looked concerned. “I don’t want you to change yourself too much to fit in.”

“I thought you wanted me to fit in.”

“I want you to be happy.”

“I am happy.”

“Are you sure?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, I mean it’s a little too early to tell for sure, but I have friends now, so I’m doing better than I was two days ago.”

Bowie nodded. “Ok.”

After dinner, Andi started to head up to her room. “Aren’t you going to go work in Andi Shack?” her mom asked.

“I have a lot of homework.” Which wasn’t technically a lie. She tried to ignore her parents’ concerned looks as she left the room. When she got to her room, she immediately facetimed Buffy and Cyrus to tell them everything.

“And they’ve got this book, this Burn Book, where they wrote all these mean comments about everyone in our grade.”

“What does it say about us?” Buffy asked.

“Oh… uh… you’re not in it.”

“Those bitches.”

“Oh, and TJ and Marty said I can’t have a crush on Jonah Beck because he’s Amber’s ex? What’s up with that?”

“It’s some “Girl Code” bullshit,” Buffy explained. “Not that Amber’s ever cared about following Girl Code herself, but you know.” There was definitely a story behind that comment, but Andi was almost afraid to ask. “She’s just trying to control you because she’s a power-hungry bitch. Though, honestly, what do you even see in Jonah anyway? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s kind of an idiot.”

“It’s the dimples,” she and Cyrus answered simultaneously, before giggling as Buffy rolled her eyes.

“Anyway, if we take Amber down, you can date whoever you want.”

“Woah. ‘Take her down?’ I thought you just wanted me to spy on her so we could talk shit about her?”

“Buffy has been planning to take Amber down for years,” Cyrus explained.

“But we’ve never had an inside man before.”

“I don’t know. That seems a bit extreme. Maybe she’s not really that bad?” Ok yeah, Amber was clearly a bitch, but Buffy also clearly had some deep-seated resentment against her that was clouding her judgement. And from what Amber had said, Buffy wasn’t exactly innocent herself.

“Andi, Amber Kippen is a life ruiner. She’s a snorpion.”

“Yeah, you said that. What does that even mean?”

“Have you ever heard the story about the frog and the scorpion?” Andi nodded. Bex had told her that story a few times. “She’s the scorpion. Don’t be the frog.”

“Ok. Got it. But I don’t know if I want to be part of some plan to ‘take down’ someone I just met.”

Buffy nodded. “Ok, fine. I’m not gonna make you do anything you don’t wanna do. But just think about it, ok?” Andi nodded. “Ok, we should probably get going. Talk to you tomorrow?” She nodded again and they all said goodbye before hanging up.


	7. What's Wrong With Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Tell me who we hate today  
>  And I will fall in line  
> Hug me while my shoulders tense  
> And we'll pretend we're fine  
> Though we both know one day  
> There'll be blood on the floor  
> But which one will betray the other more_

TJ watched Andi and her dad drive away. He rubbed his hands over his face, feeling like an idiot for embarrassing himself in front of Bowie Quinn ( _ no, Mack _ ). Amber hadn’t exactly been wrong when she said that he had a bit of a ‘man crush’ on the him, and maybe he did fall for ‘every guy who can play an instrument moderately well’ as she had so eloquently put it, but that was none of Andi’s business. Mostly because Bowie was her dad, but also because, you know, the ‘guy’ part. Sure, he knew from Amber stalking her Instagram that Andi herself was queer too (as were both of her parents), but that still didn’t mean he had to tell her anything. The only people who knew were Amber and Marty. And technically Reed and Kira. But he didn’t want to think about That right now.

He sighed and walked inside. As he got up the stairs, Amber poked her head out of her bedroom. “Where’d Andi go?”

“Her dad came to pick her up.”

“Oh.” She looked disappointed.

Normally, he’d tease Amber for her obvious crush on Andi, but it had been a long day, and he didn’t have the energy for that right now. He just walked into his room and closed the door. He flopped onto his bed and started playing his music (not the Renaissance Boys). He just didn’t have the energy to Do anything right now. He turned up the volume to try to drown out his thoughts. It didn’t work.

His brain kept replaying the image of Amber closing that door in his face. Sure, watching her pluck Marty’s eyebrows wasn’t exactly fun anyway, but neither was hearing the two of them laughing and not knowing what was so funny.

The three of them had always been close, but after the whole thing with Buffy in middle school, and even more so after the thing with Reed and Kira last year, they had gotten even closer. He knew people thought it was weird, even if they’d never dare say it to their faces, but he didn’t care. He loved his siblings (not that he ever told them that). And he kind of liked that the three of them were like Sharpay and Ryan levels of close to each other. Except there were only two Evans twins, and there were three Kippen triplets, a fact he was becoming increasingly aware of lately. Maybe that dynamic didn’t work as well with three people. After all, how many famous sibling trios were there? Maybe Amber and Marty were Sharpay and Ryan, and he was just, I don’t know, Kelsi: the gay piano player that the other two walked all over and didn’t even get to be a part of the main cast.  _ Ughhh…  _ Why did Amber have to drag him into her  _ High School Musical _ obsession when they were kids?  _ Whatever _ . He couldn’t think of anything better to compare it to.

And now there was Andi, too, and he just wasn’t sure what to make of that. He liked Andi. She seemed nice. But he felt weird about Amber’s sudden interest in her. Was she going to be apart of their group now? Can you even add someone new to a friend group that consists entirely of siblings? Or was this just some new fascination of Amber’s that would fade after a week or so? It was too early to tell, but here was something about her that felt different than Amber’s past crushes. TJ just couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

Amber hadn’t really liked anyone since Iris. Sure, she’d had a few crushes on girls, but they were never that serious, and she’d never acted on them. And she’d had a few boyfriends, but she never actually liked any of them. She dated them because she could. Because as the most popular girl in school, she needed to date the most popular  _ boy _ in school. Well, the most popular boy that she wasn’t related to anyway. And because she was worried that if she didn’t, people might start to figure out  _ why _ she didn’t like guys. Marty didn’t get why she cared so much. But then, Marty didn’t seem to have to try as hard as TJ and Amber to get people to like him. He just seemed to be naturally popular, while the other two Kippens had to work at at. So TJ got why Amber did it. But when she had suggested that TJ do the same thing, get a fake girlfriend to throw off people’s suspicions, he immediately dismissed the idea.

But maybe Amber had been right. After all, Kira had found out. But maybe she would have figured it out anyway. He  _ had _ been dating her boyfriend. Not that he had known at the time that Reed had been cheating on him. Or her. Or whatever. It didn’t really matter anymore. He was an asshole. And then Kira had threatened to out him to everyone. So she was an asshole too. Maybe they deserved each other. But he was over it. Amber had ‘dealt with’ the problem. Somehow. He honestly didn’t want to know exactly what she’d done to them. Or said to them. Or whatever.

So why did it feel so weird to see them together at the mall? Maybe it was because they had been sharing a pretzel, and he’d heard Buffy’s voice in his head saying ‘sharing a pretzel is basically middle school marriage.’ And now he was thinking of Buffy Driscoll of all people. He had successfully managed to Not Think About Buffy Driscoll for almost three years. At least outside of the two of them arguing over which team got to use the gym for basketball practice. So why was he thinking about her now?

Why did they have to look at that stupid Burn Book? God, he had known Andi Mack for all of two days, and she was already bringing up memories of things he’d rather forget. Things she hadn’t even been around for. Maybe that was why he felt vaguely uncomfortable around her. Maybe it was because he felt like she could somehow tell he wasn’t straight.  _ Ughhhh _ . So much for trying to take his mind off things.

There was a knock on the door. He got up and opened it. It was Marty. “What do you want?” He sat back down on his bed.

“You’re playing your sad playlist.”

“So?”

Marty just sat next to him and gave him a look. “So… What’s up?”

“Just you know… stuff.”

Marty snorted. “Very specific.”

TJ hit him. “Yeah well, what about you?”

“What about me?”

TJ shrugged. “You know… Amber bringing up the whole Buffy thing. I know it’s not your favorite thing to talk about.”

Suddenly, Marty stood up. “You wanna go play basketball?”

TJ looked at him. He supposed he would be a hypocrite if he tried to make Marty talk about stuff he didn’t want to talk about. And that wasn’t really something the two of them did. Talk about their feelings. And maybe basketball would be a better distraction than listening to sad music alone. “Yeah, ok.” He held out his hand, and Marty pulled him to his feet.

TJ grabbed a ball, and the two of them went downstairs and outside to play basketball in the driveway. It did an ok job of distracting him, but there was still this voice in the back of his head telling him that playing against Marty wasn’t as much of a challenge as playing against Buffy had been. But he had fucked that up years ago, and there was no going back, so this would have to do for now. So he did his best to push that voice aside and enjoy absolutely destroying his brother in his favorite sport.


	8. Stupid With Love (Reprise)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _That's love, I guess  
>  You try hard to impress  
> But end up acting like a tool_

Andi kept hanging out with the Plastics. And she kind of was starting to like them? Even though they were mean, like all the time? But it was fun being a part of the ‘popular’ group. People looked at her differently. Like she was actually a person. It was nice. So she put up with all the mean things they said because it somehow made the few nice things they said that much better. And she found herself constantly trying to impress Amber. Even though half the time Amber made her feel bad about herself. She noticed that Marty and especially TJ did the same thing. She didn’t get it, but she couldn’t stop.

And then, after she hung out with them, she would tell Buffy and Cyrus about all the awful stuff they said, and they would all laugh about it together. It became like a routine over the next few weeks.

And even though she wasn’t technically ‘allowed’ to like Jonah Beck, she could still talk to him, right? At least in the safe space of Art History. She even managed to make some progress in the ‘not making a fool of herself’ department. She wasn’t off to a great start (one time, he asked her a question, and she just responded, “dimples.”), but she slowly started to improve. She even started being able to speak in full sentences around him. On October 3rd, he asked her what day it was. “It’s October 3rd.”  _ My new favorite day _ , she thought to herself, smiling as she doodled hearts around the date in her notes.

But then one day, he told her that, after everything that had happened with Amber, he wanted to take a break from dating.  _ Well, shit _ . There went her chances that barely even existed in the first place. But whatever, she hadn’t had much hope anyway, so that didn’t really change anything. Even if she couldn’t date him, she could still be his friend. There was nothing wrong with wanting to spend time with somebody. Right?

Then one day, he asked her to be his partner on a project because she was “the smartest person in class.” She nearly fainted. Of course she agreed. How could she turn down an excuse to hang out with him outside of class?

Things went pretty well from there. Of course, she couldn’t tell Amber about it, which meant all of her ‘talking about Jonah Beck’ energy was directed toward Buffy and Cyrus. She could tell they (especially Buffy) were starting to get annoyed with it, but at least it was a break from talking about Amber.

On the Friday before Halloween, Jonah Beck invited Andi to a party the next night. She was so excited. And the best part? It was a costume party. She loved Halloween, especially dressing up. But she only had one day to make her costume.  _ Shit _ .

She threw open the door to The Fringe, where her mom was working, after school. “Mom! I have a problem!”

Bex rushed over to her, looking concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“I got invited to a party.”

Bex’s face filled with pride, and she squealed. “Oh my god! You’re first high school party! That’s so exciting! Wait, what’s the problem?”

“It’s a costume party.”

“You love costumes.”

“It’s tomorrow.”

“Oh. Well, I guess we’ve got our work cut out for us then. But I know you can do it.”

“Can you do my makeup?”

“Of course! What were you thinking?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all so much for reading this and for leaving kudos and comments!


	9. Someone Gets Hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _It's fine for you  
>  It's fine to flirt  
> It's fine  
> Till someone gets hurt_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: the d-slur is used once toward the end

Andi walked into the party in her very elaborate ‘zombie ex-wife’ costume and immediately realized that she was way overdressed. (Or underdressed? Differently-dressed?) The guys all seemed to be in pretty generic low-effort costumes; about half of them were just wearing sports jerseys. Meanwhile, the girls were basically all wearing some combination of lingerie and animal ears. There were a few that were more creative, but they were all “sexy,” not scary. There was one person dressed as sexy corn? Just in case you forgot that this was the Midwest, apparently. Andi definitely scared a few people when she walked in, and the farther she walked into the party, the more self-conscious she started to feel.

Eventually, she ran into Jonah, who was wearing some sort of sports jersey and holding a red plastic cup. “Andi?” She nodded. “Cool costume. Zombie bride?”

She shook her head. “Ex-wife.”

He laughed. “That’s great.”

“Really? You don’t think it’s too much?”

He shook his head. “Nah, it’s totally docious magocious.” She had no idea what that meant, but she assumed it was a compliment, so she laughed. “Are you having fun so far?”

“Yeah, I mean, I just got here, but it’s pretty cool. Definitely different from any party I’ve been too before.”

“Yeah? I suppose we’re pretty lame compared to the rock stars you’re used to hanging out with.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think you’re lame, Jonah. Besides, at least people here are the same age as me.”

He laughed. He glanced behind her at the door. “I should probably go, but I’ll see you around?” She nodded.

Not even a minute later, the Kippens came up to her. Amber was wearing a Playboy Bunny costume, and TJ and Marty, who were standing on either side of her, were just wearing white t-shirts with the word ‘dribble’ written on them, which Andi didn’t get at all.

“I didn’t know you were coming. Love the costume!” Amber said it in a way that didn’t quite sound like sarcasm, but almost definitely was.

“Yeah, Jonah invited me.”

Amber raised her eyebrows. “Jonah Beck? Yeah, I saw you talking to him just now. Do you like him?”

“Um.”

“Cause it’s ok if you do. I mean, I wouldn’t waste my time if I were you; he’s kind of a dumbass, but if you like him, I could talk to him for you.”

“Really? You’d do that for me?”

Amber nodded. “Of course! What are friends for?” She started walking over to Jonah.

A second later, Marty saw some girl walking by and turned to follow her, saying, “Hey, Rachel…”

TJ took a sip of his drink as he and Andi watched Amber talking to Jonah. Jonah looked over and waved at Andi, so she waved back excitedly. TJ shook his head. “You’re too trusting, Mack.” He almost sounded like he pitied her.

“What do you-” Suddenly, Amber and Jonah were kissing, and for the second time in three months, Andi felt like her brain was melting. It was like a car crash; she couldn’t look away. But she had to. She had to get out of there. “I’m gonna…” TJ just nodded, and she turned and left. She managed to get outside before the tears started to fall.

She ran all the way to Cyrus’s house, where she knew he and Buffy were having a horror movie marathon. She let herself in, and when she opened the door to the basement, they both screamed. They paused their movie and got up as she walked in.

“Andi?” Buffy asked. “Woah, you weren’t kidding. Your mom really is good at special effects makeup.”

Cyrus stepped closer. “Are you ok?”

She just shook her head, and he pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back as she cried on his shoulder, probably getting makeup all over his cardigan, but not particularly caring. When she finally pulled away, Buffy held out a box of tissues, and she took one gratefully. After she blew her nose, she looked up at Buffy and Cyrus. Neither of them said anything, but they were looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to tell them what happened.

“She took him back. Amber took Jonah back. She told me she was going to talk to him for me, and the next thing I knew, they were kissing. Right in front of me!”

“I’m sorry,” Buffy said. “I told you, she’s a life-ruiner. That’s what she does.”

“Yeah, when we were in middle school-” Cyrus stopped. “Sorry, I know you don’t like to talk about it.”

Buffy shook her head. “No, Andi deserves to know.”

“Amber already told me. Although, now that I think about it, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was lying.”

Buffy and Cyrus shared a look before sitting back down on the couch. “What did she tell you?” Buffy asked. Andi repeated the story to the best of her recollection, watching Buffy get angrier as she went on. “That bitch. That is  _ not _ how that happened.”

Andi sat next to Buffy. “So what  _ did _ happen?”

Buffy sighed. “Ok, so, Amber, Iris, and I  _ were _ friends. And I  _ did _ have a crush on Iris, which I told Amber in confidence by the way, that backstabbing bitch. But I bet she didn’t tell you that she liked Iris, too.” Andi’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. Buffy nodded. “Yep. And it gets worse. Less than a week after I told Amber that I liked Iris, the two of them were dating. Of course, it was a secret. Marty, TJ, and I were the only ones who knew. And you can’t tell anyone because like, as much as I hate her, even she doesn’t deserve that.” Andi nodded. “Right. So, they were like super couple-y around me. And they said it was just because they couldn’t be around anyone else, but I know Amber did it on purpose, to like flaunt their relationship in front of me. Anyway, then Iris moved, and as much as I missed her, part of me was honestly relieved that I wouldn’t have to see them together anymore. And like, and this is how I know that at least some part of her actually cared about Iris, it was like something inside Amber broke after that. Like, she was always kinda bitchy, but after Iris left, she got so much worse. She was cold and bitter, and I couldn’t stand being around her anymore, but she was my only friend, so what else was I supposed to do? And then I started hanging out with TJ and Marty more, because like I was always at their house you know, and Amber was a bitch. We mostly just played basketball together, but it was fun, and there was no drama. And then, I tried out for the basketball team because I figured if the three of us could play together in their driveway, why couldn’t we play together on a real court? And there wasn’t a girls’ team, you know? I didn’t think TJ would have a problem with it. I thought we were friends. But when I made the team, he was pissed. He refused to pass me the ball. He knocked me down in practice all the time, but I just kept getting up. I just put up with it. So now, two of the Kippens hated me, but I still didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I just kept going to their house and pretending like everything was normal. And then Marty and I started to get closer. We’d mostly just run together or play video games or whatever, but it was fun. I thought we were friends. But then, out of nowhere, he told me he liked me. And I was just like, ‘uhh what the fuck. We’re friends.’ He did not take it well. He didn’t talk to me for the rest of the weekend. And then. On Monday, when I got to school…” She stopped and took a shaky breath. Cyrus put his arm around her. “I got to school, and the word ‘dyke’ was painted on my locker.”

Andi gasped. “Oh my god, that’s awful.”

Buffy nodded. “I know. And there were all these different rumors going around about me. The most popular ones were that either I was a lesbian, and that’s why I rejected Marty, or the one Amber told you: that he was the one who rejected me. And I had already put up with so much that year, but I knew going to the principal would make me look weak, but I was just so tired of everything, so maybe I freaked out a little bit, but probably not as much as whatever Amber told you.”

“Yeah, she said that you flushed his shoes down the toilet?”

Buffy looked down and Cyrus snorted. “Ok, that one’s actually true.” Andi raised her eyebrows, and Buffy looked back up at her. “In my defense, I was 13 and not very creative.”

“She also said you got in a fight and got kicked off the basketball team?”

“TJ started it!”

“It was TJ?” Andi almost laughed.

Buffy nodded. “Yeah, and I may or may not have broken his nose.”

“Damn.” Andi was actually kind of impressed. “Ok, what about your parents pulling you out of school?”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “That had nothing to do with that. God, the Kippens really think the world revolves around them. My mom got a new job in Phoenix, so we moved. And then, a few months later, there were some budget cuts, and her program was shut down, so we had to move back to Shadyside. And I did not want to go to Grant, but you don’t really get to choose where you live when you’re in the military, so.” She sighed. “I decided to try to just ignore them and just get through the next four years, so I put all my energy into school and basketball, and it’s mostly worked. At least I have Cyrus.” She shrugged, and she and Cyrus smiled at each other.

Andi squeezed her hand. “I’m so sorry.” Buffy smiled sadly at her. Andi nodded. “I’ll do it.” Buffy and Cyrus shared a confused look. “We’re going to take Amber down.”

Buffy nodded and wiped her tears away before standing up and smiling. “Let’s do this.” She started pacing in front of them like she was teaching a class. Cyrus even pulled out a notebook from somewhere to take notes. “Ok, so, Amber Kippen is a dictator. And how do you take down a dictator? You go after her resources. Which, in this case, are: her looks, her man candy, and her mindless drones. Getting her brothers to turn on her honestly shouldn’t be too hard; we just have to strike at the right moment, and I know their weaknesses.”

“Getting Jonah to break up with her shouldn’t be too hard either,” Cyrus said. “I mean, she doesn’t even like him, and it shouldn’t take him too long to realize that.”

“You’re forgetting something, my friend: Jonah is a dumb boy,” Buffy pointed out.

Cyrus shrugged. “Fair enough.”

“The thing I’m not sure about it is her looks. I mean, she’s a conventionally attractive white girl. There’s not much we can do about that.”

“I could get my mom to give her a makeover,” Andi suggested.

Buffy thought for a second. “That feels too temporary, and she would know that you’re the one behind it, but you might be on to something. We’ll keep brainstorming. Now, for this plan to work, you have to pretend like you still like them. Do you think you can do that?”

Andi nodded. “Yes, I think I can.”

Buffy nodded. “Then, let’s get to work.”


	10. Revenge Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _It's a revenge party  
>  A party that ends with somebody's head on a spike  
> A revenge party (She gets everything)  
> With your two best friends (She gets everything)  
> It's like a party (She gets everything)  
> With revenge is what it's like_

When Andi walked into school on Monday, Marty was waiting for her by her locker. “Hey, Andi.”

Andi waved at him. “Hey, Marty.” She smiled.

“Amber wanted me to tell you that she tried to talk to Jonah for you, but he just wanted her back, and that’s not her fault.”

Andi put her hand up. “I totally get it.”

“So you’re not mad?”

“Of course not. I didn’t even like Jonah that much anyway.” Marty sighed in relief. “I just hope, I can still have lunch with you guys?”

Marty nodded and smiled. “Totally! I’ll see you then?”

Andi nodded and walked into homeroom, high-fiving Buffy and Cyrus as she sat down.

The hard part came when Jonah sat at their table at lunch. He and Amber were all over each other. Andi understood what Buffy had meant when she said that Amber had flaunted her relationship with Iris in front of her. But Andi just sat through it and pretended like it didn’t bother her. No matter how much it hurt. At least, in the safe space of Art History, she could talk to him normally. Although, ‘normal’ for her around him was maybe a few awkward sentences every once in a while.

A few days later, Andi, Buffy, and Cyrus were in Cece’s kitchen looking for snacks. Buffy was sitting on the counter while Andi and Cyrus looked through the cabinets.

“What are these?”

Andi turned to see what Cyrus was talking about. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when she saw the familiar-looking box he was holding. “Huh. I thought Bex threw those all out.”

“What are they?” Buffy asked. Cyrus handed her the box, and she looked at it. “The packaging is all written in Chinese?”

“They’re these weirdly addicting candy bar things that Cece used to never let us eat, but I knew she’s always had a secret stash somewhere. They’re like her guilty pleasure. She doesn’t eat them very often because she claims they make her fat, but she bought like a ton of them when Pops left, and Bex said she got rid of them on like our second day here.”

Cyrus examined the box and then looked back up at them like he suddenly had an idea. “Hey, what are the chances that Amber knows how to read Chinese?”

Buffy snorted. “Exactly zero. Why?” But then, her eyes widened and an evil grin spread across her face. She looked at Andi, who was still very confused. “Hey, you said that eating a lot of these will make you fat, right?”

Andi shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. They’re definitely not healthy. Why?”

“She’s not getting it,” Cyrus said to Buffy.

Buffy just held up her hand and they watched as the realization of what they were getting at dawned on her. “Now she’s getting it.” Andi nodded. “So, do you know where Cece buys these?” Andi nodded again, this time with a smile on her face.

The next day, Andi sat down at lunch and pulled one of the bars out of her bag. She watched as Amber watched her start to open it. “What’s that?”

Andi showed it to her. “They’re these weird nutrition bars that my grandma uses to lose weight.”

Amber took the bar from her and tried to read it. “What is this? Chinese?” Andi nodded. “What’s in them?”

Andi shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Well, do they work?”

Andi shrugged again. “You’ve seen my grandma, right?” Amber nodded. “Well, she eats these all the time, so they seem to work for her.”

“I really need to lose three pounds.” No one said anything. She cleared her throat and elbowed Jonah.

“Huh? Oh. What, no. You’re so pretty,” he said kind of half-heartedly.

Amber rolled her eyes. “Shut up.” She took a bite of the bar. She raised her eyebrow. “This tastes way too good to be healthy.”

Andi raised her eyebrow. “I know, right? They taste like deceptively good, but they really do work. Besides, my grandma won’t even buy me sugary cereal. You think she’d eat those if they weren’t healthy?”

Amber shrugged and nodded. “I guess. Do you have more of these?”

“I can bring you a whole box tomorrow.” Andi smiled.

A few weeks later, Amber pulled up in front of Andi’s house to give her a ride to school like she always did. But when Andi got into Amber’s car, she could tell something was off. More specifically, that something was TJ. But Amber and Marty either didn’t notice or didn’t care. The two of them just continued on talking like normal, Andi trying to jump into the conversation every once in a while to feel included, while TJ just sat there in silence with this pissed-off look on his face. When they got to school, he was halfway to the front door before the other three even got out of the car.

As they started walking, Andi asked, “What’s up with him?”

Amber answered, “His math tutor quit yesterday.”

“Oh. I didn’t even know he had a math tutor.”

Amber shrugged. “Well, he doesn’t exactly go around announcing it. But anyway, you’ll never guess who Coleman decided his new tutor’s going to be.”

“Who?”

“Buffy Driscoll.” Andi looked at her in shock. “I know, right? I feel so bad for him. I can’t imagine having to be stuck in a room with her for an hour every week. I think I’d rather just take the F.”

Andi nodded and laughed along with her.

“I heard you’re going to be tutoring TJ?”

Buffy shook her head. “Coleman wants me too, but obviously I said no. I mean, can you imagine being stuck in a room with Toxic TJ Kippen for an hour every week?” She shuddered.

Andi gave her a look. “Aren’t you the one whose idea it was for me to have to spend time with the Kippens?”

Buffy nodded. “Fair enough. But at least we’re getting something out of that.”

“Are we though?” Cyrus asked. “So far all we’ve done is make Amber’s face smell like a foot and make her boobs slightly bigger. That’s not exactly revolutionary.”

Andi had to agree. Giving Amber foot cream for face cream hadn’t exactly been her best idea, but they had vetoed her first idea of putting glitter bombs in their lockers. And the candy bars had barely started to take effect. At this point, they were basically just waiting for Jonah to break up with Amber and couldn’t believe that it hadn’t happened yet, but Buffy was sure that it would happen eventually. And they didn’t yet have a plan to turn Marty and TJ-  _ Wait _ . Andi turned to Buffy. “You know, if you were tutoring TJ, you could be your own inside man.”

Buffy bit her lip and tilted her head to the side. “You know, you might be right about that. But is it really worth it?”

Andi shrugged. “I don’t know. Is it?”

The next day, Andi and the Kippens got to school early because Marty had track practice and Amber had to do… something. She didn’t tell Andi what it was. So Andi and TJ sat in the cafeteria. TJ still wasn’t really talking.

“Are you ok?”

TJ sighed and rolled his eyes. “I know Amber already told you.”

Andi nodded. “Would having Buffy be your tutor really be  _ that _ bad?”

TJ just shrugged. “Well, she refuses to do it, so I guess I’ll never know.”

“Have you tried talking to her?”

“And what would I say? It’s not like she doesn’t have plenty of good reasons to hate me, to hate all of us.”

Andi raised her eyebrow. This was the first time any of the Kippens had come close to admitting that they were in the wrong. “What if you apologized?”

TJ snorted. “Kippens don’t really do that.”

“Well, maybe it’s time to start?” she tried. He just gave her a look. “Ok fine, maybe you don’t have to say the words ‘I’m sorry,’ but maybe you could offer her something in exchange for the tutoring.” She shrugged. “Like come to some sort of truce.”

“What would she even want from me?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I know her, like, at all.” She looked over and saw Buffy and Cyrus walk into the cafeteria and head for the breakfast line. “You could ask her?” She nodded toward them with her head.

TJ looked over at them and then back at her. He looked… nervous? No, that couldn’t be right. TJ Kippen doesn’t get nervous. He stood up but didn’t make a move to start walking over to them. Andi stood up too and pushed him slightly in that direction. He turned and glared at her, but there was no real heat behind it. She just rolled her eyes and pushed him again. This time, he started walking.

Andi sat back down and started to watch them from a distance. TJ’s back was to her, and they were too far away to hear what was being said. Buffy looked at TJ in surprise and crossed her arms. They talked for a bit, and then suddenly, Buffy put her arm around Cyrus and literally pulled him into the conversation. Cyrus smiled nervously at TJ. A second later, TJ put his hand on Cyrus’s shoulder. And then, he was pushing Cyrus toward the counter. Cyrus reached up to grab a muffin, but stopped when the whole line of students started yelling at him. TJ was by Cyrus’s side in a second with his arms crossed. “Hey! He’s with me.” Andi could hear him even from where she was sitting. The students in line all shut up, and Cyrus grabbed the muffin, taking a bite with a huge grin on his face. TJ looked at Cyrus with this expression on his face that Andi couldn’t quite describe, but it was the softest look she had ever seen on any Kippen’s face. Certainly the closest thing to a real smile she had seen on TJ. It was gone in a second, but Andi knew it had been real. He started walking back toward Andi, saying something she couldn’t hear to Buffy on the way. But he walked right passed Andi and toward the hallway.

She got up and followed him, quickly falling into step beside him. “What was that?”

He shrugged. “I got her to tutor me, so that’s going to be fun,” he said sarcastically.

“No, I mean the thing with the muffin.”

He shrugged again. “She wanted me to get her friend a muffin.”

“And that look you gave him?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She smiled. “You know… Cyrus is pretty cute,” she teased.

He stopped and turned on her so fast she almost ran into him. “Don’t.”

Her shock quickly dissipated when she realized that the look on his face wasn’t really anger; it was fear. “I was just kidding. But, you know, it’s ok, right? If you do think he’s cute?”

“I know it’s ok. But I don’t. So drop it.” He turned and walked away. This time, she didn’t follow him.

She turned and walked back to the cafeteria, finding Cyrus and Buffy’s table and sitting across from them. “So, what happened?” she asked them.

Buffy shrugged. “I agreed to tutor TJ.”

“In exchange for a muffin?” Andi nodded at the muffin that Cyrus was currently devouring.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “TJ and his cronies keep cutting the line and stealing the chocolate chocolate chip muffins before Cyrus can get one. The other day, they even stepped on one.” She shook her head. “But no, that’s not all I got out of it. I also made him promise to give the girls’ basketball team more practice time because last year, the boys’ team kept hogging the court, and it was the worst.” Buffy shrugged. “Plus, you were right. This is a good opportunity to manipulate him.”

Andi nodded. The word ‘manipulate’ kind of made her uncomfortable, but she couldn’t argue that that wasn’t what they were doing. But it was for the greater good. Right?

Sometime during the first week of December, Andi was sitting in her English class next to TJ when Cyrus came in to hand out candy canes wearing a Santa hat. He came over and placed one on each of their desks. TJ looked up at him in surprise. Andi noticed that Cyrus’s face was slightly pink. He moved on quickly to the next row.

“Who’s yours from?” TJ asked her.

She opened and read the note she herself had written, pretending to be surprised. “Thanks for being such a great best friend. You’re like a sister to me. Love, Amber.”

TJ raised his eyebrows at her. “Amber never gets anyone candy canes.” Andi shrugged, and he reached over and took it from her. He looked over the note. Andi was fairly confident in her forgery abilities, but if anybody could tell that it wasn’t Amber’s handwriting, it was TJ. “Huh.” He tossed the candy cane back on her desk with a weird look on his face.

“Who’s yours from?” Andi asked him, to change the conversation.

TJ looked at the note. “It doesn’t say.”

Andi reached over and took it off his desk. ‘Sometimes, there’s a nice person on the inside trying to get out.’ She thought the handwriting looked familiar, but she couldn’t place it. She gave the candy cane back to TJ and noticed that he was blushing almost as badly as Cyrus had been. She looked over at Cyrus just in time to see him look back at the two of them as he left the classroom.  _ Huh _ . She sat back in her chair and tried to force her attention back onto the teacher as she began her lecture again.

After school, Andi found Cyrus. “Did you get TJ a candy cane?”

His face turned bright red. “Maybe?”

“I don’t remember that being part of the plan?”

“It wasn’t. I just… wanted to.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t tell Buffy.”

As far as Andi knew, Buffy and Cyrus never kept secrets from each other, but she thought about how Buffy would probably react, and she nodded. “I won’t.”

He sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

Buffy came up to them then. “What’cha talkin’ about?”

Cyrus looked panicked, so Andi quickly covered for him. “The Kippens want me to be a part of their dance for the talent show.”

Cyrus and Buffy looked at each other. “Jingle Bell Rock,” they said together.

Andi raised her eyebrow. “How’d you know that?”

“They do it every year,” Cyrus explained.

“And they still use my choreography from when Iris, Amber, and I did it.” She sounded very salty. “I mean, of course they’ve changed it a little bit since then, but still.” She shook her head.

The day of the talent show came, and when Andi saw the costumes, she started to regret inviting her parents. No, scratch that, she definitely regretted telling Cece about it. She tried to convince her not to come, but all three of them went all ‘dance mom’ on her and insisted.

Halfway through the song, TJ, not used to doing the dance with a fourth person, stumbled and kicked the stereo that was sitting on the edge of the stage, making the music skip. As he leaned down to try to fix it, he accidentally kicked it again. Right into Reed’s face, which was somehow both hilarious and mortifying. The four of them on stage all looked back and forth between each other, not knowing what to do.

But if there was anything that Andi had learned from essentially growing up backstage, it was that the show must go on. She started singing the song where it had left off and continued the dance. Amber and Marty immediately joined in. TJ, though, looked around for a second before jogging over to the piano that was on the side of the stage. To Andi’s, and everybody’s, surprise, he started playing along. It sounded… really good?

When the song finished, they all bowed as the curtain closed, and then they walked offstage. Jonah came up to them to congratulate them on their performance. He put his arm around Amber, but she didn’t let him kiss her because “lip gloss.” Andi tried not to watch.

“You guys did great.”

“Yeah, Andi really saved our asses there,” Marty said, smiling.

Amber rolled her eyes. “She wouldn’t have had to if it weren’t for TJ forgetting the choreography.”

“Well, maybe if you hadn’t changed it last minute for the first time in three years…” TJ responded.

“And it definitely wouldn’t have been as good without TJ.” Andi turned to him. “I didn’t know you could play the piano.”

He shrugged and started to respond, but Amber interrupted him. “Yeah, and now the whole school knows, dumbass. What’s next? Are you gonna tell them your name? Or that you’re-”

“Don’t.” TJ stopped her in a low voice that Andi had never heard before. He walked away.

Marty turned to her. “That was pretty low, AJ.”

She just rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” But Andi could’ve sworn there was a slightly guilty look in her eyes as the two of them had a silent conversation before Marty left to follow TJ. “I’m gonna go change.” She gave Jonah an air-kiss and walked away, leaving Andi alone with Jonah.  _ Great _ .

Suddenly, her parents and Cece were there. They all gave her a big group hug.

“Andi, you were incredible,” Bex started.

“But that dance…” Bowie continued.

“And that outfit…” Cece gave her a look.

Andi raised her eyebrow at her. “Ok, I know, but you don’t get to say anything about _ my _ outfit like we didn’t find your old bikini when we were cleaning out the house a couple months ago.”

Cece blushed slightly, and Bex laughed. Bowie saved them by turning to Jonah. “Who’s this?”

Jonah waved. “I’m Jonah.”

“Amber’s boyfriend,” Andi explained with an obviously fake smile on her face. Bex nodded, clearly understanding. “Jonah, these are my parents, Bex and Bowie. And this is my… Cece.” Jonah nodded, a slightly confused look on his face.

“Where is Amber? And the other two?” Bex asked.

“Amber went to change, which I should probably do too. I’m not sure about the others.” 

They all nodded. “Ok, we’ll see you out front, Andiman. It was nice to meet you, Jonah.” Bex said as Andi walked away.

When she was in the car on the way home, she got a notification from her groupchat with Cyrus and Buffy.

Cyrus: Andi, what did you do?

Andi: ?

Buffy: ??

Cyrus: I think you broke TJ

Andi: ??

Buffy: ???

Andi: I didn’t do anything?

Buffy: How do you know?

Cyrus: um

I sort of maybe found him at the swings?

Long story short: he was very upset

I don’t think I can say any more than that

But like, what happened?

Andi: Amber made fun of him for playing the piano? For some reason?

And then she made a comment about his name?

And she started to say something else, but he stopped her

Buffy: Oh yeah, that’ll do it

Andi: ?

Buffy: He’s really sensitive about his name

They all are

It’s weird

I’ve known them since kindergarten and I don’t know any of their full names

Andi: That is weird

Buffy: The good news: it sounds like we’ve successfully turned at least one of her brothers against her

Cyrus messaged Andi privately.

Cyrus: Somehow, I thought that this whole ‘taking down Amber’ thing would make me feel better than it does?

Andi: Me too

Cyrus: Is it bad that I feel bad for TJ?

Andi: No, I do too

I can’t imagine having Amber for a sister

But that’s why we’re doing this, right?

To take her down and free everyone from her control

This is a good thing

Right?

Cyrus: It doesn’t feel very good

Andi wasn’t sure what to expect when school started up again after Christmas Break. She hadn’t talked to Marty and TJ at all over the break, and she had only talked to Amber once, when she made her go with her to buy her dress for the Spring Fling.

She had already picked it out, but she needed to try it on one more time in front of a friend before actually buying it. Amber refused to talk about her brothers during the whole shopping trip, and Andi was scared to ask. When she tried on the dress, the zipper wouldn’t go up all the way. Amber started to freak out, asking why those diet bars Andi had given her weren’t working. Andi did her best to reassure her, and suggested simply getting a size up. She asked an employee who was walking by for help, but she just laughed saying that they didn’t carry any bigger sizes and that if they wanted one, they would have to go to a different store. This caused Amber to freak out even more, so Andi told her that she could alter the dress to make it fit her. Amber reluctantly accepted and bought the dress, sending it home with Andi. The dress was now sitting in Andi’s closet, still untouched.

And now, Andi was walking into school, unsure what was going to happen. The day ended up being surprisingly… normal. Almost too normal? Or at least whatever Andi’s normal was now. All three Kippens acted like nothing had happened at the talent show. The next couple weeks went by pretty much the same. But then, things started to go wrong.

Andi, her parents, and Cece went out for dinner at a fancy restaurant to celebrate Bex and Bowie’s anniversary. Bex and Bowie hadn’t wanted to, but Cece had insisted. Sometime during the middle of dinner, It happened. Andi happened to look over at the other side of the restaurant, and she saw Amber. With a guy who was definitely not Jonah. She watched as Amber drew a heart on the guy’s hand. Her parents must have noticed her staring because they looked over.

“Is that?” Bex asked.

“Amber.” Andi nodded.

Cece looked over. “Your friend Amber? Should we say hi to her?”

“No!” Andi shook her head aggressively. The other three looked confused. “She’s on a date.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Bowie asked.

“That’s not her boyfriend.”

“Oh,” Bex said.

“Can we leave?”

“We haven’t finished our food yet,” Cece pointed out. “And we’re here to celebrate your parents. We can’t just leave early.”

“Please. She can’t see me. If she knows that I know that she’s cheating on Jonah…” She looked at her mom desperately.

Bex nodded. “Ok.” Andi sighed in relief as they all got up and left, Bowie leaving money on the table as they did.

That Saturday, Jonah came over so they could work on their Art History project together. Every time Bex came into the kitchen (which was way more often than she really needed to), she gave Andi a pointed look, making her feel guilty.

At some point, Jonah must have noticed that something was up. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, just stressed about this project, you know?” He gave her a disbelieving look, and wow, that must have been a really bad lie if even Jonah could pick up on it. She sighed and looked down. “Amber’s cheating on you.”

“What?”

She looked up at him. “Amber’s cheating on you.”

“Oh. I was kind of hoping I misheard you. Are you sure?”

Andi nodded. “I saw her. The other night. She was with some guy, and I think she was drawing a heart on his hand.”

Jonah looked down at his hand. He showed it to her. “Like this?” There was a faded black heart on it.

She nodded. “I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” He started to stand up. “I should go.”

She nodded. “Do you need a ride?” He just shook his head as he continued to gather his things.

After he left, she sat back and sighed. Her mom came into the room. “You did the right thing.”

“Then why does it feel so shitty?”

The next day, Andi and Cece went to the Rage Cage, as had become their monthly tradition. This time, Andi needed it just as much as Cece did. When Andi was done and Cece was still going, she started to walk around. In one of the other cages, she saw a familiar-looking figure.

“Amber?” The person stopped and turned around, taking off her helmet as she did. She was crying. Andi had never before seen her cry before. At least not for real. “Are you ok?” Amber shook her head. “What happened?” Andi asked, but she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

“Jonah broke up with me.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. Did he say why?”

“He said someone told him that I was cheating on him.”

“Oh. Were you?” Amber just glared at her. Andi nodded. “Right. Not the point. Got it. Did he say who it was?”

Amber shook her head, and Andi did her best to hide her relief. Amber shook her head again, more vigorously this time, as she wiped away her tears. “Anyway, what are you doing here?”

Andi gestured behind her. “Cece and I have been coming here regularly since she and Pops split up. What about you? Do you come here a lot?”

Amber shook her head. “TJ saw me ripping up the teddy bear that Jonah got me and basically dragged me here.”

Andi nodded. “Yeah, that tracks.” She noticed Cece leaving the cage she was in. “I should probably get going. I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”

Amber just nodded before turning back around and pulling down her helmet so she could get back to smashing things.


	11. Fearless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Imagine just dancing like no one was there  
>  Everyone staring but you do not care_

At school, things were… weird. Andi hadn’t thought that it could be possible for Amber to be even bitchier than she had been before. She was wrong. Amber snapped at every little thing. TJ and Marty seemed to be constantly torn between trying to appease her and just being completely done with her. When Andi was with the three of them, she could feel the tension in the air, like they were all on the verge of snapping at any moment.

After a couple weeks of this, it finally happened. “TJ! Stop trying to make fetch happen. It’s not going to happen.”

The table went silent. TJ looked like he had just been slapped. Marty looked at his brother, seemed to come to a decision, and turned to his sister. He stared her down. “You can’t sit with us anymore.”

Amber stopped with a french fry halfway to her mouth. She set it back on her tray and raised an eyebrow at Marty. “Excuse me?”

Somehow, Marty managed to keep his composure. “You’re acting like a bitch, and we don’t want you to eat lunch with us anymore.”

Amber looked between him, TJ, and Andi. They tried their best to imitate Marty’s confident stare, but they stayed silent. Amber grabbed her tray and stood up. “Fine. You can walk home, bitches.” She turned and crashed right into someone, spilling her food all over herself.

“Watch where you’re going, bitch.”

Amber glared at her. “At least I have a personality, Linda.” She dropped her tray on the ground and stormed out of the cafeteria. The whole room was silent as everyone watched her go. As soon as the door slammed closed, the cafeteria was once again filled with noise.

Andi, TJ, and Marty all looked at each other. “Well. That was…” TJ started.

“Fetch?” Andi finished. Suddenly, the three of them burst out laughing.

When they calmed down, Marty said, “She did have a point though.”

“About what?” Andi asked.

“We don’t have a ride home.”

“Oh shit. You right,” TJ agreed.

“My dad can give you a ride. If you don’t mind hanging out at the Red Rooster until he gets off work anyway.”

The rest of the day, Andi felt like people were staring at her. But it wasn’t the way they had stared at her during her first couple days of school, like she was something new and different and annoying. It was more like how they had stared at her when she had first started hanging out with the Plastics, but more intense. It was something like awe and fear and adoration? Maybe? As they walked down the hallway, Andi noticed that TJ and Marty were walking on either side of her and slightly behind her, like they usually walked behind Amber. She felt kind of weird, but also kind of powerful? She wondered if this was how Amber usually felt.

The three of them walked into the Red Rooster. Bowie looked up from the counter at them with a confused expression on his face. “Hey, guys.”

Andi waved. “Hey, dad. When do you get off work?”

Bowie checked the time on his phone. “In about half an hour or so. Why?”

“Can you give us a ride home?”

He nodded, still looking confused. “Yeah. Where’s Amber?”

Andi glanced at TJ and Marty. “It’s a long story.”

He nodded. “Ok… Well, you guys can hang out here if you want. Just don’t break anything,” he joked.

They all nodded and started wandering around the store. Andi gave them a grand tour, which didn’t take very long considering it was a fairly small store. They looked through the records, pointing out ones with cool or funny covers. They looked at all the instruments. They saw a piano in the corner, and Marty and Andi practically pushed TJ toward it. He sat down on the bench while the other two leaned against the piano and looked down at him.

“What do you you want me to play?” They both just shrugged. He rolled his eyes. “You two are useless.” He started playing.

As he concentrated on the music, Andi noticed that he closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue slightly. It was almost cute. Andi and Marty started dancing along to the music. They weren’t really trying to dance well; they were just having fun. She noticed the few costumers in the store staring at them, but she ignored them. When the song ended, she and Marty stopped dancing and clapped dramatically. TJ rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.

Bowie came over to them. “That was really good. How long have you been playing?”

TJ blushed and scratched the back of his neck nervously. He was about to answer, but Marty beat him to it. “Basically forever. Our mom’s a piano teacher.”

Bowie looked as surprised as Andi felt. Damn, how little did she know about the Kippens? “Oh. Do you play too?” Bowie asked Marty.

Marty laughed. “Nah, Teej is the only one who got that particular talent. Clearly, I got everything else.” He gestured toward himself. TJ rolled his eyes.

“You know, we do open mic nights here sometimes. You should think about performing.”

TJ looked unsure. “I don’t know…”

“Just think about it. I should get back to work.” And with that, Bowie was gone.

“You should totally do it,” Andi said. “Then, you wouldn’t have to just be ‘scary basketball guy;’ you could be ‘scary piano guy.’”

Marty snorted, but TJ gave her a weird look. “Do people call me that?"

“Um.” Technically, Cyrus had called him that. She had just assumed that it was a Thing People Called Him, but maybe it wasn’t. “I think I’ve heard someone call you that. Sorry.”

He shook his head. “It’s fine. It’s just…” He looked unsure if he wanted to continue. Andi tried to give him a look to tell him to go on. “Cyrus called me that,” he said quietly, while looking down.

Marty gave him a confused look. “Cyrus Goodman?” TJ nodded. “When the fuck was that?”

TJ looked up at them. “Remember the talent show?” They both nodded. _Ohhh_. “Right, well, after Amber was being a bitch, I went across the street to the park to clear my head. And Cyrus just kind of showed up.” He shrugged. “I don’t even know why he was there. But he made me feel better I guess.”

Marty looked like he was expecting TJ to say more, and when he realized he wasn’t, he said, “What? That’s it? What happened?”

TJ shrugged again. “I don’t know. We talked I guess. It wasn’t exactly a very long conversation. He practically ran away when he saw you coming.”

Andi raised her eyebrow, but Marty nodded. “Oh yeah. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s just, I don’t know. I’ve never really cared about people thinking I’m scary, but for some reason when he said it, it felt… weird? I guess? I don’t know. Whatever. I don’t even know him. It’s probably nothing.”

Andi was about to reassure him that it was definitely not nothing, but Bowie came over to tell them that he was ready to go. When they got outside, Marty called shotgun, and the other two just rolled their eyes and got into the backseat. As the car started moving, Andi felt her phone vibrate and took it out of her pocket. It was a text from TJ, which was weird because he was literally sitting right next to her. She gave him a weird look as she opened it.

TJ: do you think

it might be possible

that cyrus was the one

who got me that candy cane?

Andi: I don’t know

Maybe?

It didn’t say who it was right?

TJ: “sometimes there’s a nice person on the inside trying to get out.”

that sounds like something he’d say, right?

Andi: I don’t know

I don’t really know him

But maybe?

TJ: maybe it’s just wishful thinking…

is it weird that i hope it’s him?

Andi: That’s not weird at all

She reached over and squeezed his hand.

TJ: i’ve only talked to him like twice

what’s happening to me?

Andi: I think it’s called a crush

TJ: i don’t get crushes

and i’m not gay.

Andi: You know it’s ok if you are, right?

TJ: i know

but i’m not

Andi: Ok

But, you know, if you ever wanna talk about it

You can always call your resident queer-expert:

Pandi Mack

She definitely saw TJ smile, so she counted that as a win.

TJ: thanks

Andi: 💙💛💖

The car came to a stop in front of the Kippens’ house. They all got out of the car, so Andi could move into the front seat. Before she got back in the car, she gave TJ a hug. He seemed surprised, like he wasn’t sure what to do. But, eventually, he returned the hug. Of course, since she gave him a hug, she had to give Marty one too. Not that she would ever complain about more hugs. Once she got in the passenger seat, Bowie waited for them to get into their house before he started driving away.

“Are they ok?” He asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, things are just weird between them and Amber right now. But they’ll be fine.” _I hope_.

“They aren’t trying to make you choose sides or anything, right?”

“They didn’t make me, but I kind of did.” _Because I orchestrated the whole thing, and if anything, I made them choose sides_. “Amber’s not a very nice person.”

Bowie nodded. “You know, I wasn’t going to say anything, but I never really liked her.” _Neither did I. Right?_


	12. Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Ironically, I need to scare you straight  
>  Because this shouldn't be how we roll_

“Are you going to need a ride on Saturday?”

Andi looked up from her phone, where she had been drafting a text to Jonah. “What’s on Saturday?”

Buffy gave her a Look. “Have you been paying any attention to me?”

“Yeah, of course I have,” She lied. Unfortunately, Buffy saw right through it. She crossed her arms. Andi sighed. “Ok fine. Sorry. What’s on Saturday?”

“The girls basketball championship? Metcalf made an announcement about it at school today? I’ve been talking about it basically all semester? You said you’d go?”

“Oh. Right. That. Sorry, I just didn’t realize that was  _ this _ weekend. I kind of already have plans.” Buffy raised an eyebrow. “My parents and I are going to this concert. They bought the tickets months ago. The lead singer is an old friend of my dad’s, and we haven’t seen him in a while. You get it, right? I’m so sorry.” She looked back down at her phone.

“Yeah, you seem real bummed to be missing it,” Buffy said sarcastically.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She looked up again, surprised at how upset Buffy seemed. Cyrus walked over and took her phone out of her hand. “Hey!”

She could only watch in shock as he deleted the message she had been about to send. “You’re texting Jonah again? Seriously? You have sent him five messages since the last time he texted you, which was just a single emoji. A week ago.” He sighed. “Why are you doing this to yourself? Why is some guy who doesn’t even care about you more important than your friends?”

She reached for her phone, but he tossed it to Buffy, who held it out of her reach. She crossed her arms and pouted. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Cyrus gestured to himself. “Hello? Child of four psychologists here. Our brains aren’t fully developed until we’re like 25. That’s why they don’t let us rent cars. Because we would crash them. And die.”

Andi sighed. “What does that have to do with-” Buffy put her hand up to stop her and gestured for Cyrus to continue.

“The point is. Our brains aren’t fully developed yet. Specifically the decision-making part. Which is why we make bad decisions. And sometimes we need someone to step in and stop us from making bad decisions.” He crossed his arms. “Which is what I’m doing. Right now.”

“But I’m not making bad decisions. I’m just texting Jonah.”

Cyrus sighed and looked to Buffy. She nodded. He sat down next to Andi and looked at her. “Look. I know exactly how you feel about Jonah Beck.” She gave him a confused look. “He’s got those cute dimples that just make you wanna die. And you’re constantly wondering if he even knows you exist. Or cares.”

She nodded. “Yes. Wait. How do you-”

He reached out and held her hand. “I know because I’ve been there. Trust me. I get it. But he is not worth it.”

“You like Jonah, too?”

He shook his head. “I did. He was my Gay Awakening.” He did jazz hands as he said it. “I was completely obsessed with him for like three years. I went to his  _ frisbee  _ games. Do you have any idea how boring middle school ultimate frisbee games are?” Andi could honestly say that she didn’t. “So I get it. He’s cute. And popular. And athletic. And he’s the only known person with resting happy face. And you have this idealized version of him in your head. But it’s not real.”

“But it feels real.”

“I know. But the real Jonah Beck isn’t the same as the version of him that exists in your head. And that’s why he’s so frustrating.”

“He’s  _ so _ frustrating!”

“I know. I spent way too much time analyzing his facial expressions.”

“Yeah, all two of them,” Buffy added, making all three of them laugh.

“So how did you get over him, then?” Andi asked.

“We were lab partners last year in Chemistry. And, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s kind of a dumbass.” Buffy and Andi both snorted. “Basically, the more I spent time with him, the more human he became in my mind. So now he’s just Jonah: a still ridiculously cute, but completely regular guy, not Jonah Beck: some inhuman, perfect, unattainable man.”

Andi shook her head. “But we’ve been partners in Art History all year, and I still like him. I think it’s cute how dumb he is.”

Cyrus shrugged. “Look, I’m not gonna pretend to be some kind of crush expert. I’ve only really had the one.” He looked away. “Maybe two, but let’s not go there.” He looked back at her. “But what I do know, is that you could do so much better than Jonah Beck.”

Andi bit her lip as she thought about what Cyrus said. There was a small, logical, part of her brain that knew that he was right. But there was another, much louder, part of her brain that still had hope that she and Jonah could be together.

“So what are we doing this weekend?” Marty asked at lunch the next day.

“Oh, my parents and I are going to a concert out of town this weekend. Sorry.” TJ and Marty looked at each other in mild distress. The three of them had been hanging out almost every day and every weekend since Amber had been dethroned. She suspected it was because they were avoiding her. And she liked hanging out with them, but it was getting exhausting.

“Wait. Your parents are going to be out of town for the weekend?” Marty asked.

She nodded. “Yeah…”

“Is Cece going?” TJ asked, clearly getting whatever Marty was implying.

She nodded. “Yeah, my mom managed to convince her that she needed a vacation, so she’s coming, too, not to the concert with us, but the hotel has a spa.”

“So, your house is going to be empty?” Marty asked. She nodded slowly. TJ and Marty looked at each other. “We should throw a party.” They both looked at her excitedly.

She looked at them nervously. She had kind of been looking forward to this concert, but she had also only been to the one high school party before, and that hadn’t gone very well. “I don’t know…”

“You could invite Jonah,” Marty pointed out.

Andi perked up. She nodded. “Ok. I’ll try to get out of the concert. But it won’t be like a huge party, right?” They both nodded, but it wasn’t exactly reassuring.

“-And I promised my friend Buffy that I’d go to her basketball game.”

Bex narrowed her eyes at Andi. Andi suddenly felt very nervous. “You’re going to throw a party, aren’t you?”

Andi did her best to pretend like she had no idea what her mom was talking about. “What? Why would you-?” Bex just raised her eyebrow in a way that was frighteningly reminiscent of Cece. Andi sighed. “Fine. How’d you know.”

“You know you can’t hide anything from me. Besides, it wasn’t that long ago that I was a rebellious teen throwing parties when my friends’ parents were out of town. I gotta admire that you’re trying to go behind Cece’s back though. I was never that brave.” Andi looked down, waiting for her mom to tell her that she wouldn’t be able to stay home for the weekend. “Ok, I won’t tell Cece. But no alcohol. And if this house isn’t spotless when we get back, you’ll be grounded until you graduate. From college.”

Andi looked back up at her in shock. “Wait seriously?”

Bex nodded. “Yes. Now get outta here before I change my mind.” Andi was about to walk away, but Bex stopped her for just a second. “Oh, and if you want, you can come down to the Fringe after school tomorrow, and I can help you pick out supplies.” Andi walked away, with a huge grin on her face, unable to believe her luck.


	13. What's Wrong With Me? (Reprise)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _It's like all I do is plan  
>  For joy I don't get to feel  
> I'm whoever you want  
> Is that my only appeal?  
> Who am I really?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's another short chapter from tj's perspective before we get to the party  
> 

TJ and Marty were in their bathroom getting ready when they heard a knock on the open door. They looked over and saw their mom walk in. “You guys going out?”

“Yeah, we’re having a party at Andi’s,” Marty answered

“Without Amber?” Marty shrugged. TJ didn’t respond. “So you two still aren’t talking to her, huh?”

“Why should we?” TJ asked, not looking at her as he focused on fixing his hair.

“Did I ever tell you about the time my sister and I went five years without speaking to each other?” The boys turned to face their mom and shook their heads. She gave them a sad smile. “I don’t want that to happen to the three of you,”

TJ shrugged. “Well, maybe we’re just tired of her acting like she’s better than us just because she’s technically the oldest or whatever.”

Their mom gave him a confused look. “What are you talking about? Amber’s not the oldest? You are.”

TJ and Marty shared a look before looking back at their mom in confusion. “Wait what?” TJ asked.

“Are you sure?” Marty asked.

She nodded and chuckled. “Yeah, I think I remember the birth order of my own kids. TJ was definitely first. Why did you think Amber was the oldest?”

Marty shrugged. “That’s what she told us.”

TJ sighed. “And we believed her.”

“Wow, we’re stupid.”

“Hey, you two are not stupid. Amber can be… difficult.” TJ snorted. That was an understatement. “Lord knows I have no idea what’s going on in that girl’s head most of the time. I just wish she would talk to me. I can tell that she’s hurting from whatever happened between the three of you. But I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Well, maybe she should stop being such a bitch then,” TJ said.

She sighed. “One day you’ll have kids, and then you’ll get it. You’ll be worshipped for years, and then they’ll turn three.” TJ snorted and looked back in the mirror. Their mom looked like she was thinking for a few seconds before she spoke. “Did she do something more than what you told me?”

The two boys shared another look. Marty answered, “It was kind of a bunch of little things that built up.”

“Yeah, we just got tired of her telling us what to do all the time,” TJ added.

“Well, it seems to me like you’ve just replaced her with Andi.”

TJ shook his head. “Andi doesn’t tell us what to do.” If anything, they told her what to do.

“So, why are you guys having this party?”

“Because parties are fun,” Marty answered with a shrug.

“And because Andi wanted an excuse to see Jonah,” TJ added.

“Jonah, as in Amber’s ex?”

And ok, TJ could see where his mom was going with that, but it didn’t mean anything. “I mean, yeah, but so what? That doesn’t mean Andi is like Amber.”

“Yeah, Andi’s nice to us. Amber isn’t.”

Their mom put her hands up. “Ok, ok. I just want you to try to work things out with Amber?”

TJ shrugged. “Maybe some day.”

“Yeah, when she stops being a bitch,” Marty added.

Their mom gave him a look, but seemed to decide it wasn’t worth it to say anything more about it. “Ok. Have fun at your party. Call me if you need anything.”

They both nodded. She started to leave, but TJ stopped her. “Hey, mom.”

She turned to him. “Yeah?”

“Can you not tell Amber about the party?”

She nodded. “I won’t.” But she didn’t seem happy about it. He nodded at her, and she finally left.

TJ looked back in the mirror one last time before he and Marty left. As they passed by their home gym, they heard loud angry music coming from it. TJ thought he recognized the song, but he pushed that thought from his mind as he kept walking. He had a party to get to.


	14. Whose House Is This?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Hear about a party  
>  Here's the procedure  
> Text all your friends  
> Tell 'em where to meet you  
> So you know nobody  
> That's not what counts  
> It's somebody's house  
> And they got no bouncer! ___

Andi walked down the stairs to where TJ and Marty had been waiting for her to change for the party. “How do I look?”

They both turned to look at her. “You look so fetch,” TJ declared.

Marty nodded in agreement. “Jonah’s an idiot if he doesn’t think you’re beautiful.”

“To be fair, Jonah’s always an idiot,” TJ said.

Andi just rolled her eyes. “Ok, so I got enough snacks for eight people. Do you think that’s enough?”

TJ and Marty looked at each other. “Sure…” they both said, not sounding very sure.

It was not enough snacks. Andi wasn’t sure how it happened. But suddenly, her house was packed with people. She barely even recognized most of them. And someone had brought alcohol. Probably multiple someones. And she was pretty sure she smelled weed coming from somewhere?

It wasn’t like she had never been to a party before, but her parents weren’t completely irresponsible; they had mostly managed to keep her away from anything too bad. So while she was used to loud music and large crowds, she wasn’t quite used to This, and it was a bit overwhelming. Especially when she remembered that this was her house and she was responsible for cleaning up afterward.

When Marty offered her a drink, she hesitated for a second before taking it, but then she looked at the hundred drunk toddlers around her and decided she wasn’t about to be the one sober person in the room. As she drank, she tried to remember everything her mom had ever told her about drinking and partying safely, but she kept getting distracted by the chaos around her. At one point, she started thinking about that one John Mulaney bit, and it briefly crossed her mind that she hoped no one took a shit on her dad’s computer.

She pushed that thought away and tried to enjoy the party. Marty got her and TJ to dance with him, and she found herself having a lot of fun. She was dancing and drinking with her friends. She was throwing a fun party. With fun music. And fun people. People who thought she was cool. People who liked her.

But she kept finding herself looking for Jonah, who still hadn’t arrived for some reason. And then she barely managed to stop a couple guys from knocking over one of Cece’s potted plants. And suddenly, the music was too loud, and she couldn’t breathe, and she felt herself start to spiral. She had another drink, but it just made everything worse.

She decided to go outside to get some air. She managed to make her way through the crowd and out the back door. 


	15. More Is Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I would prefer the girl you were  
>  Not who you're trying to be  
> You think this works with me?  
> Well, you thought wrong  
> Looking at this place  
> I see you trying to erase  
> What is best about yourself just to belong_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two chapters in one day? it's more likely than you think. (I may or may not be procrastinating homework.) Plus, I feel bad for not posting anything the past couple days, and they're both really short, so here you are: some good old-fashioned jandi angst

She saw the light on in Andi Shack.  _ Shit _ . She opened the door and saw some random straight couple making out on her couch. “Get out.” She had no patience for their bullshit. They quickly left the shack. She sighed and sat down where the couple had just been sitting, taking off her heels as she did. She tried to make a mental note to wash the blankets later, but the thought disappeared as quickly as it arrived.

She looked up when she heard someone knock on the still-open door. It was Jonah. She stood up and straightened her dress. “You’re here.” She tried not to sound too excited, but she probably failed. “I was looking for you.”

“I was looking for you too.” He looked around. “What is this place?”

She gestured around her. “This is, or I guess it will be, Andi Shack. It’s where I do all my arts and crafts and stuff. Or I would, but I haven’t really finished setting it up yet. And I haven’t really been doing much art recently.” She felt a little sad as she realized that, but she quickly brushed it away.

He looked at the pile of accessories on the table. He picked up a bracelet. “You made all this stuff?”

She nodded and moved closer to him, trying to subtly move stuff out of his line of sight. “Yeah, it’s kind of embarrassing.”

He shook his head. “What? No, it’s cool. Totally docious magocious.” He smiled at her, and she laughed. “Could you make me one?”

She looked at him in surprise. “Yeah, of course,” she said, perhaps a bit too eagerly.

He smiled. “Cool.” There was kind of an awkward pause. “Um, cool party by the way.”

“Thanks. I can’t believe how many people showed up.”

He shrugged. “People like you.”

She looked down. “I don’t know why. I’m so lame.”

“What? No way. You’re so cool. I mean, I definitely wouldn’t be passing Art History if it wasn’t for you.”

She shook her head. “Nah, you’d be fine.”

“No seriously. Thank you so much for all your help this year.”

She shrugged. “Well, I needed some sort of excuse to talk to you.”

He gave her a confused look. Wait shit, had she actually said that out loud? “Why couldn’t you just talk to me?”

“Because of Amber. Because you were like her property.”

“Her property?” Why couldn’t she stop talking?

“No, shut up. Not property-”

“Don’t tell me to shut up.” And now he looked kind of mad, which was not a look she was used to seeing on Jonah Beck. Fuck. Why couldn’t she do anything right? Why couldn’t she think? He gave her a look that she couldn’t fully process. “You know, you are just like her.” He took a step back from her. He looked around Andi Shack. “I thought you were different. I guess I was wrong.” He started to leave.

“No, wait. I am different.” She knew that sounded lame, even to herself.

He didn’t even look back. Not even when she called his name. She tried to follow him around to the front of the house, but he was gone.

_ I should have thought this through a bit more… _


	16. Someone Gets Hurt (Reprise)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _You think your shit don't stink  
>  You think the rest of us are dumb  
> I hate Regina’s guts  
> But here’s what you don't comprehend  
> At least she has the guts  
> To not pretend to be my friend!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> plot twist: it's actually 3 chapters in one day! I just wanted to get to the end of the party and get you that sweet bandi angst i know you've all been waiting for. to be honest, these chapters probably all could've been one chapter, but i wanted to keep with each song being it's own chapter. thank you all for reading this fic! we really are getting close to the end now. the last 4 songs are literally all my favorite, and i hope i manage to do them justice

Andi stood on the front lawn, just trying not to cry. And then, she saw a familiar-looking car start to pull up in front of her house. It was moving very slowly, and there was a person sticking out of the sun roof. Buffy.  _ Shit. _

“I thought you were going out of town this weekend!” Buffy shouted.

She started walking toward the car. “I’m sorry.”

“So your new popular friends are worth missing out on your dad’s friend’s concert or whatever but we aren’t?”

“Buffy…”

“Did you have fun at your fun party? With your fun new friends? And your fun music? And your fun booze?”

“Buffy. You know I couldn’t invite you. People can’t know that we’re friends.”

“That’s bullshit! You’re the popular girl now. This is  _ your _ fucking party! You could’ve invited whoever the fuck you wanted to. You have the power to make a difference. To change the status quo. But you didn’t! Because you don’t care about us!”

Andi felt so guilty, but she didn’t want to think about that, so that energy and emotion got redirected into anger and defensiveness. “Well, it’s not my fault you’re like obsessed with me or something!” She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, but she couldn’t take them back. The car halted to a stop right in front of her.

Buffy disappeared from the top of the car. The door opened, and suddenly Buffy was right in front of Andi. She had never seen anyone look so angry before. “Not everything’s about you. See, that’s the thing with you Plastics. You think everyone is in love with you, when actually, everybody hates you.”

“You made me like this! It was your idea for me to pretend to be Plastic.”

Buffy scoffed. “Buddy, it’s not pretend. You’re as Plastic as they come. Cold, hard, shiny, fake Plastic. You think you’re so perfect and that the rest of us are stupid or something. You don’t get it. I hate Amber’s guts. But at least she has the guts to not pretend to be my friend!” She started to turn away.

Andi tried to reach out. “Buffy…”

Buffy gave her one last look. “No. It’s fine.” But it wasn’t fine. As she got in the car, she said, “We won today, by the way, not that you care.”

“Buffy, that’s great,” Andi tried.

“No, you don’t get to be happy for me.” She slammed the car door, and Cyrus drove away.

She walked back into Andi Shack, fully prepared to just cry herself to sleep right there. She collapsed on the couch. But then she saw her phone, which she had left there, light up. There were a bunch of notifications she didn’t care about, and she just swiped those away. There was also a text from her mom.

Mom: Cece found out about the party. We’re on our way home

_ Shit _ . Well, this night just kept getting better. The text had been sent about twenty minutes ago, and it was a two-hour drive, so they had about an hour and a half. She was suddenly filled with fear and adrenaline.

She ran back into the house and found Marty and TJ. “My parents are on their way home. How do we get everyone out?”

Marty nodded. “I got this.” He disappeared, and a second later, the music stopped and the house was filled with the sound of a police siren. Everyone scattered.  _ Like the rats in Ratatouille _ . Within minutes, she and TJ were left alone. Marty walked back over to them. He tapped his phone screen, and the sirens stopped.

“You’re a genius,” she told him.

“I know.”

TJ rolled her eyes at him and turned to her. “So, how much time do we have?”

She checked the time on her phone. “Just over an hour.” She decided to round down to be safe. And because she could barely do math while sober, let alone while drunk.

TJ nodded, and the three of them got to work trying to clean up. They played rock paper scissors to see who had to clean up the vomit they found in the hallway. Marty lost. They opened some windows to try to take care of the smell. They picked up all the trash, which Andi made TJ take out to the dumpster. Andi threw any decorations that were still salvageable into Andi Shack.

By the time Cece’s car rolled into the driveway, they had cleaned up as much as they could, Andi had changed into pajamas and brushed her teeth, and they had just sat on the couch and turned the tv on.

“See, I told you Andi knew better than to throw a party while we were out of town,” Andi heard Bex trying to reassure Cece as the three of them walked into the living room.

Andi paused the tv and turned to them. She did her best to look like she had no idea what they were talking about. “Who said anything about a party? We’ve just been watching Netflix all night.”

“We got a call from the neighborhood watch that it sounded like someone was throwing a party here,” Bowie explained.

Marty, TJ, and Andi all looked at each other, trying to look confused. “If there was a party going on tonight, I’d be there and not here, watching Great British Bake Off with these losers. I mean, they don’t call me Marty from the Party for nothing.”

TJ rolled his eyes and shoved him. “No one calls you that.”

Bex and Bowie both managed a small laugh at that, but Cece, who apparently had just noticed them, narrowed her eyes. “Andi’s not allowed to have boys over, especially when we’re not home, and  _ especially _ boys we don’t know.”

“Ok, first of all, Andi’s not your kid, she’s mine.” Bex turned to her mom, looking just slightly angry. “And second of all, we do know TJ and Marty. I told Andi they could come over.” She turned back to Andi. “But it’s probably about time they head home. Do you need a ride?” She said it like a question, but they all knew it wasn’t really one.

Marty and TJ both nodded, and Bowie offered to take them home. They gathered their things and followed him out the door.

Cece looked around the room, trying to see if anything was out of place. “Why is the window open?” Shit, they must have missed one.

“Um… we got hot.”

Cece walked over and closed it. “Well, don’t leave it open next time.” Cece left the room, clearly intending to inspect the whole house to make sure nothing else was out of place.

Andi sighed in relief and sat back on the couch as Cece left. Bex came over and stood in front of her with her arms crossed. “Don’t get too comfortable. You aren’t off the hook yet. What were the two conditions I gave you?”

“Clean the house before you get back,” Andi answered. “Which, we did,” she pointed out.

“And?”

“No alcohol.” Andi did her best to hide the guilt she was feeling. It did not work.

Bex sat on the couch next to her. “You can’t hide from me. I know all the tricks. Like I said, it wasn’t that long ago that I was a rebellious teen.” She pulled out her phone. “Also, social media exists.” She laughed slightly. “Boy am I glad that Instagram didn’t exist when I was your age.” Andi couldn’t tell if that was directed at herself or Andi.

“Am I grounded?”

Bex nodded. “Oh yeah. Big time.”

Andi nodded. “For how long?”

Bex tilted her head to the side. “I haven’t decided yet.” She pat Andi on the knee and sighed. “Go on and go to bed. We’ll talk more in the morning. I’ll deal with Cece.” Andi nodded and headed upstairs to her bedroom.


	17. World Burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I wanna watch the world burn  
>  I got the gasoline  
> I wanna watch the world burn  
> And everyone get mean  
> Cady, time to watch your back  
> Cady, time to turn and cough  
> Because you took me down  
> But you didn’t finish me off_

At school on Monday, Buffy and Cyrus wouldn’t even look at Andi. At lunch, she sat with TJ and Marty, and things were mostly normal, but something felt a bit off. She kept catching herself glancing over to Cyrus and Buffy’s table. Then, during fifth period, she, Marty, and TJ all got called to the principal’s office.

As they walked into the office, they saw Amber walking out. For the few seconds they looked at each other, Andi felt as if the world moved in slow motion. She could feel a pit of dread start to form in her stomach. She didn’t know what was about to happen, but she knew that whatever it was wasn’t good. They sat in the three chairs in front of Metcalf’s desk, with Andi in the middle.

Metcalf held up a familiar, pink book. “Have any of you seen this book before?” That pit of dread in her stomach grew.

Andi just sat there frozen as the other two shook their heads. “No,” TJ said quickly. “Well, yes, we’ve seen it, but it’s not ours.”

“You better get your story straight, Mr. Kippen.”

“It’s Amber’s. She’s trying to make it look like we wrote it, but really, she wrote it.”

Metcalf opened the book and started flipping through it. “And why would Ms. Kippen refer to herself as a ‘lying, backstabbing, fugly, snorpian? I don’t even know what that means.” Marty snorted. Metcalf gave him an angry look. “This is no laughing matter.” Marty looked down guiltily. Metcalf snapped the book shut. “You three are the only students in your grade who aren’t in this book. Why do you think that might be?” He asked it in a tone that suggested he already knew the answer.

“Maybe we aren’t in it because everyone likes us?” Marty tried.

Metcalf gave him a disbelieving look. “Is there anything else you wanna say?”

Marty shook his head. “We can’t answer anymore questions without a parent or lawyer present.”

Metcalf sighed and turned to TJ and Andi. TJ said, “Whoever wrote it probably didn’t think anyone would ever see it?”

“I hope that nobody else ever does see it.”

As if on cue, the door opened, and Vice Principal Dullrige came in, looking frantic. “You better come quick. The students have all gone wild. I tried to break up a fight between two girls and someone stabbed me with a pen. At least, I hope it was a pen.”

Metcalf stood up quickly and rushed out of the office. Andi, TJ, and Marty followed him. The hallway was absolute chaos. Andi had never seen anything like it before. There were students and teachers everywhere, fighting and yelling and crying. There were papers all over the ground. She felt someone staring at her and looked across the hall, where Cyrus and Buffy were holding a piece of paper and looking at her. They looked away as soon as they noticed that she had seen them, but she hadn’t missed the look of hurt and betrayal in their eyes. Andi picked up a piece of paper and looked at it. There was a picture of two students on it and the words: ‘Linda and Jarrod Johnson: the combined personality of a bowl of oatmeal.’  _ ‘Still true,’ _ she remembered Amber saying the first time she had seen that page. She looked around at all the other papers. They were all copies of pages from the Burn Book. There must have been hundreds of them. She felt her blood run cold as she realized what page Cyrus and Buffy must have been looking at. Someone had gone through the effort of copying and printing out hundreds of copies of every page of the Kippens’ Burn Book. Why?

She felt another pair of eyes on her, and looked up. Amber was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at the chaos she had caused with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. Of course. Who else could have done this? Who else would revel in the chaos of watching the world burn around her?

Suddenly, the fire alarm went off. Everyone went silent and froze. Metcalf’s furious voice came over the intercom. “All juniors report to the gymnasium immediately!”


	18. I'd Rather Be Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Here’s my secret strategy  
>  It always works because  
> The world doesn’t end  
> It just feels like it does  
> So raise your right finger  
> And solemnly swear  
> "Whatever they say about me  
> I don’t care!"_

Andi, TJ, and Marty walked into the crowded gym and managed to find free seats near the back. She turned and saw Buffy and Cyrus a couple rows behind her. Buffy flipped her off. Cyrus wouldn’t even look at her. She turned back to the front, where Metcalf, Dullridge, and Ms. Frankel were standing.

Metcalf held up the Burn Book. “Clearly, this book and what’s written in it has caused a lot of problems with this class. I have half a mind to cancel your Spring Fling.” Everyone started protesting at once. He held up a hand to shut them up. “But I’m not going to do that because we already paid the DJ. What I am going to do is keep you all in here until we deal with these problems. I will keep you here all night if I have to.”

“We can’t keep them passed four,” Ms. Dullridge interrupted.

“I will keep you here until four. Now, does anyone have anything they would like to say?”

There was silence. A girl near the front tentatively raised her hand. Metcalf gestured for her to speak. “Someone wrote in that book that I’m lying about being a virgin because I use super jumbo tampons. But I can’t help it if I have a heavy flow and a wide set vagina.”

Andi could practically see Metcalf’s soul exit his body. His face just screamed, ‘I could not possibly be less qualified to deal with this specific problem.’ He turned to Dullridge and Ms. Frankel behind him. “Yeah, I can’t do this.”

Ms. Frankel stepped up and took over for him. “Ok, I want to make a couple of things clear.” She held up a finger. “First of all, I know there’s a lot of misconceptions about sex out there, and our frankly abysmal curriculum doesn’t help things, but to clarify, having sex has nothing to do with what size tampons some uses. Come on guys, these are things you can google.” She held up another finger. “Second, I know that right now it might seem like one of the most important things in your life, but whether or not someone is a virgin doesn’t actually matter. Having sex doesn’t make you a bad person, nor does it make you cool. And it is no one’s business but the people involved. Got it?” A few students nodded. “So, while we’re on the topic, you have all got to stop calling each other sluts and whores and prudes and any of the other mean things that are written in that book. Ok?” Some more students nodded. “Ok.” She paused and looked around the room.

Amber raised her hand. Ms. Frankel pointed at her to indicate for her to speak. “Can I just say that I don’t think that this school has a clique problem? And that I don’t think that some of us should have to sit through this because some of us are just victims in this situation.”

Ms. Frankel nodded. “That’s a good point.” She looked around the room. “How many people in this room have ever felt personally victimized by Amber Kippen?” The entire room raised their hands, including Metcalf and Dullridge. Frankel gave Amber a Look before turning back to everyone else. “Let’s try something. Everyone, close your eyes.” Andi closed her eyes. “Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a friend say something bad about you behind your back.” Andi raised her hand. “Open your eyes.” Andi looked around and saw that everyone had their hands raised. “Ok, now close your eyes again. Raise your hand if you’ve ever said something bad about a friend behind  _ their _ back.” Andi tentatively raised her hand. “Open your eyes.” Once again, everyone in the room had their hand raised. “See? We’re all guilty of it, and we’ve all been hurt by it.” She pointed at the book. “This book is just a physical representation of all the bad things we say about each other everyday. We need to stop making fun of each other and making up rumors about each other. And when we have problems, we need to talk them out. In fact, let’s practice doing that right now.”

She had Metcalf and a couple guys help her set up a table in the gym and sent Dullridge to go get some paper and pens. As she passed them out, Ms. Frankel told them all to write out an apology. Andi stared at the blank paper. She had done so much shit this year, she didn’t know where to start. Ms. Frankel had everyone stand up on the table and read out their apologies before doing a trust fall into the crowd below. Andi knew that if she went up there and admitted to all the things she had done, no one would catch her. She stood at the edge of the crowd and watched. Every clique had issues. Every person had an apology. Some were more petty, and some were deeper, but everyone had something to say. And they were all forgiven. It was equal parts beautiful and terrifying.

Marty climbed up on the table. “Buffy,” he started, looking directly at her. She looked up at him in surprise. “I’m sorry. I know it’s been years now, but I never apologized to you, and I should have. I was a jerk to you after you rejected me.” He looked around the room. “And to clarify, yes,  _ she _ was the one who rejected  _ me _ . And it’s not because she’s gay. At least I don’t think she is. I didn’t exactly stick around to find out…” He looked back at Buffy. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have ghosted you. And I definitely shouldn’t have let Amber go all… ‘Amber’ on you. And…” He took a deep breath “I’d rather be in the friend zone than not have you in my life at all. I know you probably don’t want me in your life anymore, which is completely fair, but I miss you. I miss my running partner. I miss my bantering partner. I miss my best friend. So, I’m sorry.” He took another deep breath before turning to fall into the crowd of people waiting to catch him.

Buffy started to walk up to the table, but TJ, who had been right behind Marty in line, beat her to it. He jumped up on the table and crumpled up the paper he was holding and put it in his hoodie pocket. “So, I know I’m a jerk, and there’s probably a lot of people here I need to apologize to, but I’m just gonna go ahead and follow my brother’s lead here, because there’s one apology I need to make that’s long overdue.” He took a deep breath. “Buffy, I know you don’t like the words, ‘I’m sorry,’ and I’ve never been very good at saying them, but I think I need to this time. I was a huge jerk to you. I know you have no reason to forgive me. I was an insecure, sexist jerk. I didn’t want you to play on the same basketball team as me because I knew you were better than me. But now… I miss playing basketball with you. I miss having an actual challenge.” He smiled slightly for a second, glancing at Marty and some of his basketball friends before looking back at Buffy. “And I hate that I screwed that up. And, even more than that, I hate that I went along with the whole thing that happened with you and Marty and Amber.” He took a deep breath. “I did some pretty shitty things, and I completely deserved to have my nose broken for it. I’d say it was just because Amber made me, but I think we both know that’s a shit excuse. I was a coward. I couldn’t even stand up to my own sister. So yeah, I’m sorry.” He sighed as he turned around to fall back into the crowd. Andi looked over and saw Amber standing at the other edge of the crowd. She looked furious.

Buffy cut in line and jumped up on the table. She took a deep breath as she looked at Marty and TJ. “I think I’m ready to forgive you, but I don’t know if I’m ready to be your friend again. At least, not yet. But I miss you, too. Maybe we could start with a game of one-on-one so you could remember what it’s like to lose?” She smirked at TJ, who shook his head but was smiling, and then looked at Marty. “Or we could go on a run sometime? Finally prove who’s faster?” He smiled and nodded at her. “If you still want to after you hear everything I have to say, anyway.” They shared a confused look. She took a deep breath and looked around the room. “Because now it’s my turn to apologize. At the beginning of this year, I decided that it would be a good idea to mess with Amber Kippen’s life.” All three Kippens looked at her with almost identical looks of confusion, with varying degrees of shock and anger mixed in. “I convinced my friend Andi, you all know Andi, to spy on her and tell me about all the shitty things she said, so we could laugh about how dumb she was. And we gave her foot cream instead of face cream. And these candy bars that made her gain weight. And then Andi even got her boyfriend to break up with her.” Andi felt her face go red. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her. “And we even managed to turn her own brothers against her.” She looked at Amber. “So, I’m sorry Amber for, well, all of that.” She looked at Andi. “And, I’m sorry Andi, for dragging you into my eighth grade revenge fantasy.” She looked at Marty and TJ as she took a shaky breath. “And I’m sorry for manipulating you two into hating your own sister. That was really fucked up.” She looked back at the room as a whole. “But also, I’m sorry to myself. Because I got so wrapped up in this stupid clique drama that I lost a part of myself. I’ve always thought of myself as someone with a strong moral code. But, I guess, when your best friend of five years completely betrays you after you tell her your biggest secret, it kind of fucks you up a bit. And then when I finally had an opportunity for revenge, I took it. Without even thinking about it. And then, when I was betrayed again, I guess it finally hit me how dumb this whole thing is. Like really, this whole thing goes back to a dumb middle school crush on someone who doesn’t even go to this school anymore. Because plot twist: yeah, I am queer. Not that that’s anyone’s business.”

She shook her head and took a deep breath before she continued. “So, I’m done. I’m done with the cliques and the drama. I’m done manipulating people and letting other people manipulate me. I’m done caring about what other people think of me. I’m done with the whole concept of popularity and society’s ideas of how girls are supposed to behave. Tearing down one queen bee and replacing her with someone else doesn’t actually change anything. We have to change the whole system. So, I’m done mindlessly following someone just because she’s pretty and popular and rich. From now on, I’m just going to do my own thing, and anyone who doesn’t like it can fuck off.” She punched her fist in the air, and people started cheering. Like actually cheering. She jumped into the crowd, and they caught her. The whole thing didn’t feel real.

Andi looked across the room and made eye contact with Amber, who looked pissed. But also, hurt. She turned and started walking out of the gym. Andi ran to follow her, struggling to get around the crowd. She finally caught up with her as she crossed the street in front of the school. “Amber!” Amber turned on her heel. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t. You know what people say about you? They say you’re a home-schooled art freak who’s a less hot version of m-”

The bus came out of nowhere. Andi jumped back in surprise, but Amber didn’t see it in time. One second, she was right in front of Andi, yelling at her; the next second, she was gone.

And that’s how Amber Kippen died.


	19. Do This Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _'Cause don't it feel good  
>  To have gotten this far?  
> It's not something you did  
> Not the girl you are  
> You can hear the fear  
> Upon your heart just saying  
> "Just do your thing"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's been so long. between school and caucusing and personal stuff, i've barely had time to sleep, let alone write, but hopefully things should get better from here

Just kidding.

She did get hurt really bad though. And technically, she did die for a few seconds. At least, that what some people said. And people were saying a lot of things. They also started saying that Andi had pushed her. People were avoiding her like the plague. Even teachers. She could hear them whispering when she walked by. She ate lunch in the bathroom. She figured it would be less sad than eating alone in the cafeteria, at the now empty table where the Kippens once sat.

By the end of the day, she felt like the guilt was eating her alive. She knew that she hadn’t actually pushed Amber, but she couldn’t help but feel like it was her fault somehow. She went to Dr. Metcalf’s office and turned herself in.

“I did it. I wrote the Burn Book.”

She was suspended for three weeks. And banned from the Spring Fling. Neither of which really feel like much of a loss.

She walked home and went directly to Andi Shack. It still needed a lot of work. And hey, she suddenly had a ton of free time. She played some music on her phone and started cleaning up all the shit she’d thrown in there after the party before getting to work on organizing everything.

After a while, she heard a knock on the door and paused her music. It was her mom. She came in and looked around the room, nodding. “This is almost starting to look like a usable space.”

“Thanks.”

She leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms. “So, I got an interesting phone call today.” Yeah, Andi probably should have expected that.

“Oh?”

“Uh huh. It was from your school.”

“What’d they say?”

“Why do I feel like you know what they said?” Andi sighed and looked down. “They said you were suspended.” Andi sat down on the couch. Bex followed and sat next to her. “Do you want to tell me why?”

Andi sighed. “It’s kind of a long story.”

“I don’t have anywhere to be.”

Andi nodded. “Technically, I was suspended for writing this book. This ‘Burn Book.’ But I didn’t actually write it. Amber, Marty, and TJ did. When they were in middle school.”

“Then, why does your principal think you wrote it?”

“I kind of told him I did?”

“And why would you do that?”

“Because it was the only way to make sure no one else got in trouble for it.” Bex raised her eyebrow. “And I felt so guilty about all these other things that I  _ did _ do, and I thought maybe if I was punished for  _ something _ , it would make that go away.”

“Did it?” Andi shook her head. “So what are all these other things that you  _ did _ do?”

So, Andi told her. She told her mom everything. From the very beginning. She was crying by the end. Her mom just held her. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed being held by her mom. And talking to her mom. She used to tell her everything, but lately, they hardly talked at all. It was nice to finally just let it all out.

She didn’t remember falling asleep, but she woke up in Andi Shack covered by a blanket that hadn’t been there before. She had a headache and she felt groggy and hungry and dehydrated. She dragged herself out of bed and into the house. She got some water and found some leftovers in the fridge.

Cece came into the kitchen while she was eating. “Oh good, you’re up. Your parents are at work, so it’s just us all day.” Andi nodded. She wasn’t sure how much Cece knew, so she was a little nervous, but Cece didn’t seem mad or anything. “So, what do you want to do today? Technically, I’m not supposed to let you do anything ‘fun,’ but since you’re parents still won’t tell me why you’re grounded, maybe I don’t have to tell them what we do.”

Andi smiled. “I was actually thinking I was just gonna work in Andi Shack all day. It’s about time I finish that, and I finally  _ have _ time, so…”

Cece nodded. “Of course. Just let me know if you need anything.” Andi nodded.

Andi had gotten all of her crafting supplies organized and was trying to decorate the walls. She put up some string lights. She hung some of her crafts on the walls and ceiling. She was going through photos to try to figure out which ones to hang up. She found a few good ones of her family. But then she got to a picture of her with the Kippens. And one of her with Buffy and Cyrus. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, staring at them, when she was startled by a knock on the door and quickly put both pictures back in the box and closed the lid.

She opened the door, expecting it be Cece. It wasn’t. “Cyrus? What are you doing here?”

“Your, uh, Cece told me you were out here. I brought your homework.” He opened his bag and pulled out a folder full of papers.

She took it from him and set it on the table. “Thanks.”

He smiled. “No problem. Just, uh, don’t tell Buffy I’m here.”

Andi winced. “She still hasn’t forgiven me then?”

Cyrus shook his head. “She will though, eventually. I know she will.” He looked around. “So, what is this place?”

Andi held out her arms. “This is Andi Shack. I should really make a sign or something… Anyway, this is where I do all my crafts and stuff. Or I will, now that I finally have it all set up.”

Cyrus nodded. “That’s really cool. It’s so cozy in here.”

Andi smiled. “That was kind of the goal.”

“Well, you succeeded.”

“Thanks.”

“I should probably get going.”

Andi nodded. “Right. I’ll, uh, see you around?”

Cyrus nodded and waved before leaving.

Andi walked up to the Kippens’ front door and took a deep breath. She looked back at the car where Cece was waiting for her. Cece gave her two thumbs up, her attempt at being encouraging. Andi reached up and rang the doorbell. Amber’s mom answered the door. They talked for a minute before she let Andi go up to Amber’s room.

She knocked on the door and Amber told her to come in. She noticed that there were flowers and stuffed animals and cards and candy covering just about every surface in the room. Amber looked almost angelic in the pure white bed with the spinal halo. But as Andi got closer, she saw how… human Amber really was.

“What are you doing here?”

“I brought flowers.” Andi held up the bouquet Cece had helped her pick out. “And, uh, this.” She held up the garment bag that held Amber’s dress. Andi had finally taken it out of her closet and altered it that morning. It had taken less than an hour. “I don’t know if you still want it, but I figured I should probably bring it over.” She set in on her desk chair and put the flowers on the desk. She turned back to Amber. “And I wanted to apologize.” Amber just raised an eyebrow at her. “I was really awful to you. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

“Yeah well, me too.”

Andi just nodded. “I should probably go.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you around, Bambi.”

Andi smiled softly and nodded before turning to leave.

Andi spent the rest of the week working on the sign for Andi Shack. She probably could have gotten it done faster if Cece hadn’t kept insisting that she do her homework first. When it was done, Bowie helped her hang it above the door. Finally, Andi Shack felt whole.

She spent a lot of time there during her suspension. She made a lot of bracelets. For her friends. She didn’t consciously make the decision that they would be for her friends, but as she made each one, she added little personal details for each of them: one was pink and yellow and flowery like Amber’s Spring Fling dress, one was purple and green and had little orange beads that looked like basketballs, one was dark blue and looked a bit like space with a little otter charm she’d found in the middle, one looked like piano keys with rainbow string around the edge and a little basketball in the middle, one was made of pink, purple, and blue shoelaces, and the last one was a rainbow and had about as many different charms as she could fit on it. Finishing them was kind of bittersweet. She was actually kind of proud of how they’d all turned out. But she knew that no one would ever wear them. Because, at this point, she wasn’t sure if she still had any friends left. Cyrus came by every couple days to bring her her homework. They talked a bit, but he never stayed very long. She was tempted to give him his and Buffy’s bracelet’s then, but she knew that he didn’t want Buffy to know he was there. And as long as she didn’t try, he couldn’t reject her. No one else came by. Or even texted her. She supposed she deserved that.

But she also spent a lot of time with her family. She helped Bowie and Cece in the garden and the kitchen. She modeled for her mom, who was thinking about applying to cosmetology school and decided she needed some practice. They started doing dinner time memory games again. And watching tv together after they ate. But mostly, she stayed in Andi Shack. She ended up sleeping in there more often than in her actual bed.

When she got tired of making bracelets and couldn’t think of anything else that she really wanted to make, she started to fold paper cranes. She had been sitting in Andi Shack with her head resting on her hands, just waiting for inspiration to strike, when she had seen a stack of paper just sitting there. Waiting to be folded. Into cranes.

She just kept folding them. She decided she was going to try to make a thousand of them. She didn’t really have a specific wish in mind; it was more like a vague hope that things would get better. She put them on strings and hung them around Andi Shack, both inside and out. She made it to a thousand on the day before she was supposed to go back to school.

She was packing up her backpack for the next day when she got a text from Marty.

Marty: 😠😾🔥👿💩😡

Andi: ?

You ok dude?

Marty: yeah, i just needed to rant for a second

thanks for listening to me

sometimes i prefer talking with emojis because im too stupid to understand words

Andi: You aren’t stupid

Marty: i am though

i almost never know what’s going on

sometimes, i think the only thing i do understand is the rule of 2s

Andi: What’s that?

Marty: it’s like how everything is actually 2 things

like how you were only pretending to like us but you also actually had fun with us

or how your suspension was supposed to be a punishment, but it was actually a good thing because you got to get away from everyone and going back to school tomorrow is gonna suck for you

Andi: Yeah… not looking forward to that

Marty: well you were always nice to me so i’ll still be your friend

Andi: Thanks, Marty

Marty: 👍

Getting ready for school the next day was a struggle. For the past three weeks, she had mostly been wearing what essentially amounted to pajamas. Now, she had to actually get dressed. It felt wrong to wear the things she had worn as a Plastic. But it also didn’t feel right to wear what she had worn before coming to Shadyside.

Eventually, she settled on a compromise: one of the more comfortable dresses Amber had bought her, the denim jacket she had stolen from her mom and added more patches to, her shoes that she had painted, the choker she had made on her first day in Shadyside, and mismatched earrings. She looked in the mirror and decided that she was satisfied. And that there was no way she had the energy to put on makeup. As she looked in the mirror, she realized that she hadn’t shaved in three weeks. She was amazed to realize that she honestly couldn’t care less. She ran her hands through her hair. Her mom had cut it just the other day for the first time in a while, and she was still getting used to it being so short again. She put on a headband she had made earlier that week and turned to grab her backpack. Just before she left her room, she shoved the bracelets she had made that were sitting on her dresser into her backpack. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she should have them with her. Just in case.

She walked downstairs just in time to see Bowie putting pancakes and eggs onto plates. She sat at the counter and ate breakfast with her family. She couldn’t help but feel like it was her Last Meal.

“Does it make me a good mom or a bad mom if I give you a ride to school on my motorcycle to school?”

“Good mom. Definitely.” Andi smiled. “But you know what would make you a great mom?”

“What?”

“Letting me take your motorcycle to school?”

Bex laughed. “Yeah. Not gonna happen.” Andi pouted. Bex just rolled her eyes and stood up. “Come on, you don’t want to be late.”

Andi always loved riding on her mom’s motorcycle. Even though she wasn’t the one driving and she had to basically hug her mom the whole time, she felt so free. And she got to feel like a badass as they rolled up to the high school. She felt everyone staring at her, and for once, it was on purpose. She swung her leg over the bike and took off her helmet. She turned to give the helmet to her mom, who had put the visor of her own up.

Bex took the helmet and put it away. “I’ll see you after school?” Andi nodded. “And you’ll text me if you need anything?”

Andi nodded again. “Mom, you’re acting like it’s the first day of school again.”

“Sorry, I’m just worried. I’ll get out of your hair now.”

Andi waved. “Bye.”

“Bye. I love you.”

Andi rolled her eyes. “Mom, you’re ruining my aesthetic.” Bex just gave her a Look. “I love you too,” she mumbled.

Bex smiled and put her visor down before driving away.

She took a deep breath and straightened her dress before turning to walk into the school. She did her best to look more confident than she felt. When she got to homeroom, Cyrus and Buffy still didn’t talk to her, but Cyrus gave her a small smile. She did her best not to think about it. She tried to focus on her school work all day. Despite Cyrus bringing her her homework, she still had a lot of catching up to do.

At lunch, she ate with TJ and Marty at their usual table. Amber still wasn’t back in school yet. They filled Andi in on all the gossip she had missed. She did her best to listen, but she kept finding herself glancing over at Buffy and Cyrus.

TJ must have noticed. “Are you ok?”

Andi nodded. “Yeah, it’s just. Have you guys talked to Buffy?”

They looked at each other. “We’ve… talked a bit,” Marty answered.

“Has she said anything about me?”

TJ shook his head. “Sorry, we haven’t exactly gotten to the ‘talking about our feelings’ stage of friendship yet. It’s mostly just bantering about our basketball skills.”

Marty nodded. “Yeah or who can run faster or who can shove more baby taters in our mouth.”

Andi decided to ignore that last part because it just raised too many questions. She nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s fair.” She reached into her backpack under the table. “I have something for you, by the way.” She pulled out three bracelets. She handed one to Marty and one to TJ.

They both looked confused. “What are they?” Marty asked.

“Bracelets.”

“Like, friendship bracelets?”

She nodded and blushed slightly. “Yeah, I guess. You don’t have to wear them if you don’t want to.” Marty put his on immediately. TJ took his and looked at it. Andi pushed the third one toward them. “This one’s for Amber. I know she probably hates me, but can you give it to her?” TJ nodded, taking it and his and putting them both in his pocket.

At the end of the day, Ms. Frankel asked her to stay after class, so she took her time putting away her stuff and waited for everyone to leave. She noticed that one other kid was also waiting. She was pretty sure his name was Walker.

When everyone else was gone, she walked up to Ms. Frankel’s desk, where Walker was already standing. She gave him an awkward little wave.

Ms. Frankel smiled at her. “Welcome back, Andi.”

“Thanks.”

“So, I was thinking, and I’m sure you have a lot to catch up on from being gone, so I thought I’d give you an opportunity to make up all the points you missed at once instead of making you go through all the homework and quizzes and everything, since I know you already know all the material anyway.”

Andi nodded, but she was still confused. “What is it?”

“Well, have you heard of SAVA?” Andi shook her head. “It stands for Shadyside Academy of Visual Arts. It’s an art high school here in town. And every year, they hold this art festival where they invite students from other schools in the area and basically show off. There are competitions and art shows and stuff. It’s a lot of fun. It’s this weekend, and I’m taking the Art Club. I was wondering if you wanted to come.”

Andi thought about it. It did sound kind of fun, but also kind of stressful. Before she could say anything, Walker cut in. “It’s really fun. Plus, if we can get one more student to come, the school will give us enough funding to get hoodies.”

Ms. Frankel laughed. “Yes, there is that. But mostly, it’s a great opportunity. And it’s either this or the five-page essay I assigned while you were gone. What do you say?”

Andi smiled and nodded. “I say… It sounds like fun.”

Ms. Frankel smiled. “Perfect.”

On Saturday, Andi threw on the t-shirt Ms. Frankel had given her, a pair of leggings, and a flannel that may or may not technically belong to her mom. She grabbed a toaster tart and headed outside where Ms. Frankel was waiting in her car for her. Someone she didn’t know was in the front seat, so Andi sat behind her next to another girl she didn’t know. Walker introduced the girl in front of her as Chloe, and the girl in between the two of them as Libby.

As the car started moving, Libby signed to her, ‘I like your headband.’

Andi smiled. “I love yours.” She did her best to sign along with what she was saying, but she was a bit rusty.

Libby smiled. ‘I made it’

“I made mine, too.”

‘A tie?’

Andi nodded. “Yeah, it’s a tie. Not very creative, I know.” She took it off and handed it to Libby so she could see it. “What’s yours made out of?” Libby shrugged and took it off to show her. Andi took it and inspected it. It took her a second, but she figured it out. “Is this a popcorn bucket? You made this out of a popcorn bucket?” Libby nodded. “That’s so cool.”

She tried to hand it back, but Libby stopped her. ‘Keep it.’

Andi smiled. “Well then, you keep mine.” Libby smiled and put it on as Andi put on hers.

The Art Festival was amazing. Andi was in awe over the school. There was so much art. And so many people. And even the building itself was beautiful. Andi and Libby kicked ass at a crafting competition. They did… less well at a pottery competition, but Chloe got first place. Andi and Walker painted a mural together, and it turned out really well, if she did say so herself. She got first place at an Art History jeopardy game. She also found out that Walker did really good caricatures? Normally, she hated caricatures, but his were really cool. They walked around and looked at everyone’s art. Even the food there was beautiful. There was a mini fashion show, which was a lot of fun. And, true to Walker’s word, they did end up getting hoodies. They were really soft. Andi put in on immediately and decided that she never wanted to take it off.

By the end, they were somehow exhausted and energized at the same time. As they walked out to the car, the sun was just starting to set. “You know, we could probably make it to the Spring Fling, if you guys want,” Ms. Frankel suggested.

“But I’m not allowed to go to the Spring Fling,” Andi pointed out.

“Eh, I can get you in.”

Andi looked at the other three, who were all looking at her expectantly. She smiled and shrugged. “Yeah, ok.”  _ Why not? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks so much for reading this! only one chapter left!


	20. I See Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Plastic don’t shine  
>  Glitter don’t shine  
> Rhinestones don’t shine  
> The way you do_

When they walked into the gym, it was surprisingly quiet. When she saw Metcalf up on the stage, along with Jonah, TJ, and Marty on one side and Amber and Buffy on the other side, Andi understood why. They had arrived just in time for the announcement of the Spring Fling King and Queen. She had almost forgotten that that was even a thing. They all started moving closer to the stage to get a better view. Andi noticed that Amber was wearing The Dress. She looked beautiful.

Metcalf opened an envelope. “This year’s Spring Fling King is… Jonah Beck!” Everyone cheered as Jonah stepped forward and Metcalf placed the crown on his head. No one seemed particularly surprised. “And the Spring Fling Queen is…” He opened the other envelope. “Andi Mack!”  _ What. _ He frowned and looked around the room. “Is she here?”

Andi started walking up to the stage. She had honestly forgotten that she had been nominated. People seemed to notice her and moved out of her way so she could get to the stage. She took her headband off and shoved it in her hoodie pocket, so Metcalf could place the crown on her head. She stepped up to the microphone. “Wow, ok, I was not expecting this. I’m pretty sure half of you only voted for me because you think I pushed someone in front of a bus, so that’s not great.”

Metcalf interrupted her. “It’s not really required of you to make a speech.”

She glanced back at him. “I’m almost done, I promise.” He nodded, and she continued. “I never really did apologize for everything that happened this year, so I should probably do that.” He looked over at Buffy and Amber. “I am so sorry. For everything.” She looked back at everyone else. “I just got swept up in the drama of everything. I don’t really know what happened, but I am so, so sorry.”

“Really, most people just take the crown and go.”

She reached up and took the crown off her head. She looked at it. “Right. The crown. So many people wanted this.” She looked up. “But I look around at all of you now, and my only thought is, ‘wow, I sure am pan.’” A few people laughed, and she smiled. “That’s a joke, but really, you have no idea how beautiful you all look from up here.” She looked back down at the crown. “So many people spent so much time wanting and worrying about and fighting over this crown, but really, it’s just plastic. Cold, hard, shiny, fake plastic. It’s kind of like what I became over this year. Plastic. Fake. When they went low, I went lower.” She scoffed and looked up. “But we are all worth so much more than that. We aren’t plastic. We aren’t fragile. We’re just people. Real, beautiful, strong people. But this crown. Everyone wants it so much, so why don’t we just.” She snapped it in half. She heard someone, probably Cyrus, gasp. “Share it.” She broke it into smaller pieces. She turned and tossed a piece to Amber. “A piece for Amber Kippen; even in a spinal halo, you still look like a star.” She tossed a piece to Buffy. “A piece for Buffy Driscoll, the strongest person I know.” She turned back to the audience and started tossing out more pieces. “And some for everyone else, because, really, you’re all the real queens here.” She turned to Metcalf. “Ok, I’m done now.” And she walked off the stage.

A minute later, Jonah found her. He held up two pieces of paper. “You forgot these. We each get two gift certificates-” Suddenly, Buffy and Cyrus walked by, Buffy snatching one of the gift certificates out of his hand as they did. “Ok, one gift certificate to the Spoon.”

Andi laughed and took it. “Thanks.”

Jonah looked kind of nervous. “Can I talk to you, actually?”

Andi nodded. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“I’m sorry.”

She gave him a confused look. “For what?”

“After Amber broke up with me, I just kind of ghosted you. And that was totally not docious magocious.”

Andi smiled. “It’s fine. Really. You were upset. I get it.

He shook his head. “It’s not just because I was upset about Amber though.”

“What do you mean?”

He took a deep breath. “I knew, or at least was pretty sure, that you liked me. And, honestly, that kind of scared me. After Amber, I didn’t really want to date anybody else. There was that moment at your party where I thought I might like you, but then it was gone, and I got scared again, and I kind of freaked out, but that’s my own problem, and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you, so I’m sorry. I think I was just upset that someone I thought was my friend really just wanted to date me. I don’t know why that keeps happening.” He shook his head. “But yeah, I’m sorry I was kind of a jerk to you.”

“It’s fine, really,” She reassured him.

“Really?” She nodded. He sighed in relief. “Just to be clear though, I still don’t want to date anybody right now.”

She nodded. “Good, because I don’t like you like that anymore. Actually, I don’t know if I ever really did. I think I just liked the idea of you that I created in my own head.” She could practically hear Cyrus gloating in her head. “But I think the real you seems pretty cool, and I’d like to be his friend?”

He smiled. “Yeah?” She nodded. “Cool. So, friends then?”

She nodded. “Yeah, friends.” She held up a finger. “Actually…” That morning, she had thrown almost everything from her backpack into her purse, including the bracelets. At the time, she hadn’t known why, but now she was glad she had. “I think I might have something for you.” She opened her purse and started digging through it. She pulled out the bracelet she had made for Jonah and held it out to him.

“You made this for me?”

She shrugged. “I said I would, didn’t I? I hope that’s ok. It did start out as a thing because I liked you, but when I actually started making it, I realized that it was more of a friendship bracelet.”

He smiled. “I love it.” She smiled and helped him put it on. “So, do ‘just friends’ hug?”

She laughed and nodded. “Definitely.” The two of them hugged. She noticed Cyrus and Buffy standing off to the side, not-so-subtly watching them. “I should probably go.” She nodded to them.

He nodded. “Ok. I’ll see you around, Andiman?”

She nodded and smiled before walking over to Buffy and Cyrus.

“So… you and Jonah?” Cyrus asked.

She smiled. “Are just friends.”

“Good for you.” He smiled at her.

She looked at Buffy. “What about us? Are we friends?”

Buffy pretended to think for a second, but Andi could tell that she was holding back a smile. “I don’t know. Do we get cool friendship bracelets, too?”

Andi smiled. “Actually, yes, you do.”

Both of them looked at her in surprise. “That was a joke. You actually made us bracelets?” Buffy asked.

Andi nodded and pulled them out of her bag. She handed them each the one she had made for them and watched happily as they both put them on. They all shared a group hug. Andi hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed them until that moment.

Suddenly, Marty and TJ came up them. Marty looked at Buffy and held out his hand. “I believe I owe you a dance.”

Buffy smiled. She looked over at Cyrus, who gave her a tiny nod. She looked back at Marty. “Yeah ok. One dance.” Marty grinned and took her hand, leading her out onto the dance floor.

TJ looked at Cyrus nervously. “Would you maybe wanna dance with me?”

Cyrus confused. He looked around. “Are you talking to me?”

TJ looked even more nervous. “Well, he’s certainly not talking to me,” Andi said.

“You’re not making fun of me, are you?”

“I would never make fun of you, Underdog.”  _ Where the hell did that nickname come from? _

Cyrus looked at Andi, who nodded. That was apparently all he needed to reassure himself because he immediately broke out in a huge grin as he turned back to TJ. “I’d love to dance with you, Not-So-Scary-Basketball-Guy.”

TJ smiled and let out a sigh of relief. He took Cyrus’s hand and led him out onto the dance floor. Andi smiled as she watched her friends dance.

Andi was in the bathroom, fixing her hair. She had just put her headband back on when Amber walked in. She started fixing her makeup. Andi felt kind of awkward. “I’m sorry.”

Amber rolled her eyes. “Stop apologizing.”

“What?”

Amber put her makeup back in her purse and turned to her. “I said, stop apologizing. You’ve apologized way too many times already, and all of this was like barely your fault.”

“But-”

“No, this was all just me and Buffy, and we dragged you into it. So stop apologizing for things you didn’t do. And never apologize just for existing.”

“Oh.”

“You want to apologize again right now, don’t you?”

Andi hated that she was right. She nodded.

Amber snorted. “You know, people call me a bitch a lot. You know what they’d call me if I was a guy?” Andi shook her head.  _ ‘A Boss,’ _ she guessed. “Ansel.”

“What?”

Amber nodded. “Ansel Jordan Kippen. That’s what my parents would have named me if I was a boy.” She tried to shrug. “I’d rather be a bitch.”

“Oh.”

“You know what your problem is?”

Andi shook her head.

“You need everyone to like you.”

“Oh.” She couldn’t help but feel like Amber had a point, but she didn’t know what else to say.

“Do you know what it’s like to truly not care what people think of you?”

Andi shook her head again.

“Neither do I. But I hear it’s great.” She smirked.

Andi laughed and then shrugged. “Maybe one day we’ll get there together.”

Amber smiled. “I’d like that.” She put her makeup back in her purse. “Hey, do you wanna dance?”

Andi looked at her. “Like, together?”

Amber nodded and held out her hand. Andi noticed that she was wearing the bracelet she had made for her. “Yeah, come on.” Andi smiled and let Amber lead her out of the bathroom and onto the dance floor.

They were about to start dancing when the song switched. To a slow song. Andi noticed that Amber suddenly looked uncertain. She put her hands on Amber’s shoulders. Amber smiled and put her hands on Andi’s waist. And the two of them started to sway to the music.

Andi looked around. She saw Cyrus and TJ dancing together not too far away from them, much closer to each other than Andi and Amber currently were to each other. She saw Marty and Buffy standing by the food table, throwing cheese puffs in each other’s mouths and laughing. She found Jonah off to the side talking to Walker and Libby, all of them gesticulating wildly and laughing.

Andi looked back at Amber and smiled. Maybe she’d survive public school after all.


End file.
